Playing With Shadows
by RoboticSpaceCase
Summary: When Bill suddenly shows up at Dipper's school, Dipper must play along with the demon to try and save his classmates from shadows in the Mindscape that only Bill can kill.
1. Chapter 1

A soft breeze carried the scent of cookies through the air, and the home filled with warmth as they baked in the old oven. Though it was a cold breeze, nothing on the planet could make their home feel cold when there were cookies to be eaten.

Their last year of high school was just settling in, and the fall weather chilled them accordingly, so having a break of warmth helped them relax and get into the fall holiday spirit.

"Hey!" Mabel, the now smaller twin exclaimed as Dipper, the taller twin stole a cookie off her plate. "You got your share of cookies, you can't just steal mine!"

Dipper took a bite of the cookie and smiled. "Looks like I just did," he laughed.

His sister's eyes went from playful anger to full-on puppy-eye mode as she pouted and crossed her arms.

He rolled his eyes and got up from the couch. He really did hate to see his sister be sad, whether it was playful or not, so he decided he would get her something to make up for the cookie he had eaten in two bites.

"Here," he said as he re-emerged from the kitchen. He handed her a fresh glass of milk to help her finish off her remaining cookies.

"Aw, thanks bro-bro. I knew you wouldn't leave me hanging."

He smiled and sat next to her on the couch. "Wanna play some games while you finish off your cookies?"

She nodded and swallowed the mouthful of cookie she had eaten while he spoke. "Yeah, but we have to go to bed soon. School tomorrow!" She wiggled around and shook the entire couch.

Mabel loved high school. She had plenty of friends, she was passing her classes with a little above average grades, and no one was ever mean to her, not once.

Dipper on the other hand, was far less thrilled about it. Sure, he had a few friends, and passing his classes was a breeze, but most people either treated him like he didn't exist, or were rude to him for no reason. He hated feeling like a loser when he was forced to do group work, and would end up sitting alone, since he and Mabel didn't share any classes.

They played a few rounds of a racing game, playfully nudging at each other's arms when one would blow up the other, or when one pulled ahead.

"Well, time to hit the hay! Gotta wake up early to help decide the decorations for the gym!" Mabel was a part of any club or group that had anything to do with decorating, and the school was having a huge fall dance, so she was very excited to run around the school with black and orange glitter and confetti.

"'Night sis," Dipper said as he stood up and stretched out his long arms. He had gone through quite the growth spurt, and already even had some facial hair.

They parted ways, as they no longer shared a room, and prepared themselves for bed.

When they moved further up north, Dipper took the smaller room, since he knew Mabel would need all the room she could get for all of her crazy art projects, and he knew since he didn't need to try and figure out crazy conspiracies anymore, he didn't need the room to be filled with books and papers.

He laid down on his soft, freshly cleaned, bed as soon as he was stripped down to his boxers, and fell asleep almost immediately.

A vivid image of trees filled his head, and for a moment, he could have sworn he was back by the Mystery Shack. He looked around, and realized it must've been a dream. Ever since his out of body experience, he could usually tell when he had entered the Mindscape.

He shrugged it off and wandered around the forest, ignoring the deafening silence around him. There was no wind, no birds or animals making any noise, and even his feet stepping on small branches and leaves didn't offer a crunch or snap.

"Oh, Pine tree!" a voice sang.

His heart skipped a beat and he suddenly woke up in a panic, flailing his arms around. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time. It was a voice he never wanted to hear again. He sat awake in his bed until sunrise, not wanting to chance falling asleep again.

"Come on Dipper, you've been in the bathroom for like, seven years, I need to do my hair!" Mabel pounded on the door, and Dipper rolled his tired eyes.

He was trying to make himself look presentable, seeing as the lack of sleep made him look like a zombie. And he would know what that looked like, since he had knocked a few of their heads off before.

The door swung open, and immediately Mabel noticed his appearance. "Geez, did you stay up all night reading again?" she chuckled.

"I had a bad dream," he mumbled.

Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown. "You're always welcome to come into my room you know."

Dipper nodded and ran a hand through his fluffy brown hair. "I'm fine."

Mabel watched as he slumped away, and concern washed over her face. He hadn't had a nightmare in a while, and she knew for him that they were never just a jump scare or something really weird. They were always intense, and back when they shared a room, he would sometimes wake up screaming.

Dipper ate his cereal quickly, just wanting to get to school. He was looking forward to that day at least, since a girl he was talking to shared a class with him, and he had a chance of being paired with her for their next group project.

Mabel sat opposite of him at the table, and downed her own bowl of cereal. "So, I hear your history class is doing group work today," she said in a sing-song voice.

"Yeah, and?" Dipper leaned back in the wooden chair and crossed his arms. His face grew hot from embarrassment, because he knew where she was going to go with this.

"And, I know that you share that class with Claire." She wiggled her eyebrows, but her good mood flattened when she was reminded why he was tired and in a bad mood. "You gonna ask her to the dance?"

Dipper let his head fall onto the back of the chair and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? I don't think she even really likes me like that."

Mabel snorted and leaned forward onto the table. "You'll never find out if you don't ask her."

An obvious blush crept onto his face and he shook his head. "Anyway, hurry or we'll be late."

The school was buzzing a little louder that day, and at first Dipper didn't notice, but Mabel noticed as soon as they got out of their shared, blue, four door sedan.

"Oh shoot, I totally forgot! There's a new kid today! I'm supposed to show him around before school!" Mabel nearly threw herself out of the car, and almost tripped when she closed the door.

"Hey, Mabel!" Dipper shouted after her, but she had already run to the front doors of the school. He shrugged and made his way to his locker to organize his text books for the day.

The first three classes flew by for the twins, neither experiencing anything other than the norm.

At lunch, they met up at their usual table, and Dipper rested his head on his hand, still exhausted from his sleepless night.

"Hey, listen Dip, I gotta go meet with some friends to help starting planning the dance junk. I can only stay here for a minute."

Dipper nodded lazily, and watched as she sat down in front of him. "How was showing the new kid around? We don't seem to get many new people here."

Mabel shrugged with one shoulder and messed with the sleeve of her newly made sweater. "He was really quiet. He gave off this weird presence, and seemed to be looking for something the whole time. He barely even touched the candy I gave him!"

Dipper chuckled. "He's probably just nervous. Like you said, he's a new kid in a school that rarely gets new kids. He doesn't know anyone and probably feels like an outcast."

Mabel looked around the room and noticed that he was nowhere to be found. "I don't even see him in the lunchroom. That must mean he's sitting alone outside." Her eyes widened then her phone buzzed. "Shoot. I would go invite him to sit by us, but I gotta go." She stood up and started to walk away, but paused and looked back. "If you see him, be nice to him!"

He rolled his eyes and nodded so that she would go and leave him to sulk about being so tired.

The bell jolted him up, and he forced himself to walk to his fourth period. As he remembered that it was his history class, a heat rose up in his chest and he had to unzip his blue hoodie to feel less like he was being strangled.

He sat in his usual seat near the front, and opened his notebook. As he waited for the students to pour in and fill the seats, he tapped his pen impatiently on his desk.

Claire walked in and sat two seats to the right of him like she usually did, and his heart skipped a beat. She flipped her long, white, hair, and snuggled into her over-sized, black, jacket.

Dipper had to look down at his notebook so that she didn't catch him gawking at her.

The class silenced as the last bell rung, and the teacher, Mr. Ferritz, began to speak. "As we've talked about before, today will be the day we start our big group projects, that will be due halfway through the year. With that much time, and that much manpower, I expect nothing short of something worth an A from each and every one of you." He looked out at all of their faces and smiled. "Now here's the part you all hate; I will be choosing your partners."

A few of them groaned, annoyed that they couldn't be with their friends, but Dipper was relieved. Without the teacher forcing groups, he had no chance of ending up with Claire.

"I know, I know. Anyway, with the new student we have, the numbers are now perfect to make it so there can be three people to each team."

He began naming off the groups, and Dipper held his breath, hoping that he and Claire's names were called with each other.

"And Dipper, since your sister showed William around, I think it would be good for him to be paired with you, and . . ." he trailed off and looked at the list of names that were still left "Claire. I expect you three to have an especially interesting project."

Dipper ignored that he was stuck with the new kid, and nearly cheered when he heard Claire's name.

After he named off all the groups, he began to explain the project. "Each group will pick one of the seven influential people I have listed on the board, and you will make a display of their most famous moment, and write a anecdote on their life and accomplishments. I also expect you to make a poster to follow the diagram of their worst moment. It must be fully colored, and brought into me when finished so that I can laminate it. The last thing you need, is anything digital, a picture, a small clip, anything like that, and use it as an example of what you wrote about."

Dipper followed along and made a detailed list of each thing they needed to do.

"Alright, now break off into your groups and choose your person."

Claire looked over at Dipper and smiled. She stood up and pulled her jacket down, making it so her shorts were barely visible from underneath it.

He gulped and smiled back at her, trying to make it so his gawking wasn't obvious.

"So, me you and the new kid huh? Know anything about him?" She looked behind Dipper to see the new kid, who was slowly making his way to the front of the class, ducking past people who were moving around to get to their partners.

Dipper shook his head and cleared his throat. "Nah. My sister said he was really quiet though. He's probably just nervous."

The new kid finally made his way to them, and had a large, almost mischievous smile spread on his face. "Name's William, but you guys can call me Will, or even better,"

Dipper's heart jumped to his throat. He knew the other name you could call someone named William, and as paranoid as he was, he felt his heart slowly sink back to his chest in an almost painful way. It couldn't actually be Bill, right?

"Bill. Nice to meet you." He extended his hand out to Dipper to shake it, but Dipper nearly flinched back.

"Sorry, I have a thing about shaking hands." His voice was dry, and he was looking the guy up and down.

Bill shrugged and retracted his hand. "Anyway, which one of these old geezers should we write about?"

Dipper didn't answer, but instead looked at him as closely as he could. He had short, blond, styled, hair, and was wearing a black hoodie and black jeans. Nothing super suspicious, and he wasn't even sure if Bill could get another human body after they had defeated him a few years prior.

But again, Dipper was beyond paranoid, and was going to keep an eye on this new kid.

"Hm, how about Van Gogh? I love his work." Claire sat on Dippers desk, careful not to disturb his notebook.

"The painter guy?" Bill scoffed.

"I think Van Gogh is a great choice." Dipper crossed his arms and glared at Bill.

He raised his hands in defense and met his glare with a sharp stare. "Majority wins, it seems."

Each group decided on who their projects would be about, and the teacher let them stay in the groups to get started on who would do which part of the project.

"I'm pretty good at drawing and stuff, I can do the poster and the digital thing to go with the writing. And I know you like to write Dipper, so do you wanna do the anecdote?" She stared at him with her sky-blue eyes and was smiling softly.

He had to clear his head before speaking, and nearly choked on his words. "Yeah, I can do that."

"I guess that means I get to make the display of his greatest moment. I can do that," Bill leaned on the empty desk behind him and crossed his arms. He was staring at Dipper with a blank expression, seeming like he was deep in thought.

"Alright, this'll be way easy. If either of you need help, let me know. I know exactly what I'm going to draw, but I'm going to do some doodles so you guys can see it first and let me know if it's too much or not."

Dipper nodded, and tapped his pen on his notebook. He finally had his chance to talk to Claire, but no words came to mind.

"So, what kind of stuff do you draw?" Bill's eyes lifted from Dipper and slowly drifted over to Claire.

"Anything that comes to mind, really," she shrugged.

"I bet it's good," he smiled.

Did Bill just flirt with Claire? A boiling heat rose up into Dipper's chest and he glared at Bill.

"Thanks, I'll have to show you some of it sometime." She slipped off the desk and nudged Dipper. "I send this guy pictures of it all the time, give me your number and I'll include you in the loop. It'll also be good for me to have for the project."

Dipper caught his snide remark and had to tense his jaw not to say anything.

"I, uh, actually don't have a cell phone right now. I haven't gotten one yet."

Both of them shot him a curious glance.

"Well, that's fine. Do you have an email or anything?"

Bill shrugged sheepishly. "I'm not really very tech savvy."

The rest of class was spent with Claire asking about ways to even contact Bill, and Dipper sat silently in distress about the situation.

He couldn't out right go off on the guy. If it really wasn't Bill then he would be branded as crazy for the rest of his life, but he also couldn't just sit back and wait for something to happen to prove that it was Bill. He couldn't really try to force Bill to expose himself, since he had no idea how he could prove that it was him.

The bell rang, and Dipper finally became aware of his surroundings again, and he realized Bill was staring at him again.

"I'll text you later," Claire said as she patted Dipper on the back.

"O-okay," he smiled.

Bill stepped away without a word, and Dipper stood up shakily.

The guy was acting so weird, and just the fact that his name was Bill was too much for him.

He made his way to his locker, his thoughts racing about what Bill could possibly be there for. Revenge? Just to mess with him? Was he going to hurt his loved ones? Was he going to try and end the world again?

Mabel appeared next to him and noticed that he was nearly hyperventilating. "Whoa bro, what's wrong?"

He took one deep breath and held it for a moment, then breathed out. "His name is Bill, Mabel, and he kept staring at me and he was acting really weird. Why would he come back? Why now? What's he playing at?"

"Whoa! Slow down!" Mabel cut him off. "Dipper, you're way paranoid. I know your dream last night probably spooked you, but the kid's name is William Anderson. Not just Bill, and not with a Cipher at the end of it. And he was probably staring at you because he was trying to decide if we're twins. You know people do that sometimes when they meet us."

He looked at her with wide eyes and sighed. "You're right," he breathed. "I need to calm down. It's just that if it was him, I don't even know how I could fight him. I don't know if I could protect everyone."

She shushed him and crossed her arms. "You've always got me bro. We're the Mystery Twins, remember? We could fight Bill again if we had to."

He nodded and smiled. "You always know what to say Mabel."

"And that's why I rock! I'll see you after school!" She hugged him tightly, then walked down the hall to her next class.

Dipper's fifth period was Math, something he found incredibly easy, but he almost came unraveled again when he saw Bill sitting next to his usual seat.

He sat down as casually as he could, but felt like he was keeping himself from shaking. Every breath felt forced and his chest felt tight. What was wrong with him? He wasn't that scared of Bill, was he? He had defeated him before, why would a second time be so bad?

All throughout class, he avoided looking over at him, and found himself forcing his breath to stay steady multiple times.

When the bell rang, he wanted to launch himself from his seat and run to his car, and drive away, never to come back.

Before he reached the door though, Bill grabbed his upper arm and tugged at him. "Walk with me, would you?"

Dipper didn't know if he followed out of fear or anger, but he followed him, and was mentally preparing himself for a fight.

Bill lead him just outside, by a door that was hardly ever used. There was very few people around, and Dipper began to panic again.

How could he have let himself be lead to a secluded area by Bill?

"What do you want from me?" Dipper snapped.

Bill put his hands up in defense and smiled. "Geez, what's with the freak attack kid, did you miss me that badly?"

His words felt like a punch to the gut. It was Bill.


	2. Chapter 2

"What do you want!" he exclaimed again.

"Calm down Pine Tree, I'm not here to hurt you. If I was, you'd be hurt already." His voice darkened at the last few words, but his smile remained.

"Answer the question Bill!" Dipper grabbed the front of his hoodie and pushed him into the wall of the school.

"Pine Tree the tough guy!" he laughed. Bill met his eyes and his smile vanished from his face. "All jokes aside Pine Tree, I need your help."

Dipper loosened his grip in disbelief. "My help? You?"

"You see, as powerful as I am, there's unfortunately some demons more powerful than me, and one of them is trying something stupid."

Dipper ignored what he said, and raised his fist. "Whose body is this anyway?"

Bill's face remained still, and he spoke slowly. "It's mine. Like it? I designed the thing myself. I think I got the age off a bit though, I think this body is like twenty. How old are you now Pine Tree? Seventeen, eightteen?"

"What do you mean it's yours?" Dippers fist lowered, his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

Bill put his hand on Dippers and tugged it off of him. "Are you hard of hearing now kid? I just told you I designed it myself. The details are sticky and don't need to be bothered with right now."

Dipper clenched his hands into fists. "Why do you need my help?" He wasn't going to get side-tracked, he knew Bill was trying to mess with him.

"I already told you. Maybe you are hard of hearing. I have my powers you know, I could fix you up," he chuckled, his smile returning to his face.

He had his powers? Dipper's chest tightened. "Why do you need me to help you fight another demon? And why come here in a physical form to ask me rather than just talk to me in the Mindscape?"

Bill's smile softened, almost as if he wasn't sure himself. "Well, I thought about that. I figured you would just fight me in the Mindscape, and at least here you would have to hear me out." He paused for a moment, and his smile turned mischievous. "Besides, I did try. You woke up before you even saw me."

Dipper's head was filled to the brim with questions, but he knew Bill wouldn't just answer them without either dancing around the answer or flat out lying to him. "Why do you need my help?" he repeated.

"Well Pine Tree, as much as I hate to admit it, you've got something other than hot air in your head. Plus you can tell when you've entered the Mindscape a lot easier than others."

"Yeah, thanks to you!" Dipper grabbed Bill's hoodie again and pushed him back into the wall. "Why do you think I would even help you anyway? After everything you've done?"

Bill didn't seem surprised by the sudden attack, and his facial expression turned blank again. "Because, if you don't then everyone you know will be plagued with nightmares that will quickly turn them insane."

"What do you mean?" He tightened his grip and surprisingly Bill flinched a little.

"You see, I wanted this physical world, but some demons are alright with trying to take over the Mindscape. Not many of us know how to fight this demon." He smiled again and looked Dipper in the eye. "But I do. I need someone else though. A human."

"But you're a human now too, why can't you just do it this way?"

Bill clicked his tongue at him. "Oh Pine Tree, I don't have enough years left in this body to explain all the reasons it won't work that way. Let's just say just because I'm in a human body, does not mean I'm a human."

Dipper wasn't sure what to say next. Should he ask more about what the demon wanted, or should he just tell him no and tell Mabel so they could figure it out themselves?

"Come off it Pine Tree." Bill suddenly snapped. "I already told you it's kind of an offer you can't refuse. I'm the only one who knows how to fight him, and I'm the only one who could come and find a human who can be as aware as you are in the Mindscape."

"How do I know this isn't a trick? Last time I trusted you, you stole my body!"

Bill rolled his eyes and his impatiens was visible on his face. "I already told you," he said slowly, trying to calm himself. "if I were here to hurt you, I would have already hurt you. I was left alone with Star for long enough that I could have-"

Dipper did not want to hear what Bill could have done to Mabel, so he cut him off with a punch to the face.

"Is pain still hilarious now Bill?"

Bill took the punch surprisingly well, and responded with kicking Dipper in the gut, causing him to stumble backwards.

"I won't help you Bill! You should just leave!" Dipper coughed.

Bill seemed like he was already over the punch, and was smiling at Dipper again. "Alright, I admit I probably deserved that," he chuckled. "But you will change your mind kid. As soon as everyone around you is crazy, you'll be sorry you said no."

Dipper went to swing at him again, but Bill caught his arm and punched him in the jaw.

"Fighting won't do you any good. You got lucky with that first hit, but be assured Pine Tree, I can hurt you. Badly." He let go of Dipper's arm and walked off, his hands in his jacket pockets.

Dipper stood in silence for a moment, stunned. Why would Bill care about humans going insane from nightmares? Wasn't that what Bill did to people anyway? If he really did still have his powers, why hadn't he hurt Dipper more?

He knew Mabel was probably starting to get worried that he wasn't at the car yet, so he brushed himself off and hurried to the parking lot.

"Dude, where were you?" Mabel watched him as he got into the car without saying anything. "Did you get into a fight?" she asked as soon as she saw his red jaw.

Dipper gripped the steering wheel. "Can you just get in so we can go home?"

She piled herself into the car, then crossed her arms. "There, I'm in. Now what happened bro-bro?"

He took a few deep breathes to calm himself down before he answered her. "It is Bill, Mabel. He asked for my help," he said as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Why does he think we would help him?"

Dipper shrugged. "I don't know! He went on about nightmares or something, and I told him there was no way I would help him."

Mabel looked down at her hands in her lap and shook her head. "What exactly did he need your help with anyway? And why didn't he say anything to me about it?"

"Well, I guess since I notice when I'm in the Mindscape, I have the ability to somehow fight this other demon who's trying to fill it with nightmares, or something. He said I would change my mind once everyone around me was insane."

Mabel shuddered, but wanted to stay strong for Dipper. She had had her fair share of scarring moments with Bill, but knew that Dipper needed the support. He sometimes didn't handle things as well as she did. "Like I said before, we're the mystery twins! We can deal with this demon crap again, easy-peasy."

A small smile found his lips and he looked over to her for a moment. "You're right Mabel. These demons should be scared of us, not the other way around. Tomorrow at lunch we can start planning what we're going to do about this!"

Mabel inhaled sharply. "I have more planning to do tomorrow. In fact, this whole week is going to be full of meetings for me. Some after school. . ." she trailed off.

"Oh. Well, okay. We'll do it when we can." He smiled at her and stopped the car in front of their house.

"Why aren't you pulling up the driveway?"

"I'm going to the library. Maybe I can find some exorcism books or something that might help."

Mabel opened the car door and gave him an apologetic look. "Don't stress about this too much Dipper. We'll find a way to get Bill to go away."

He gave her a quick nod before she turned to leave, then drove slowly to the library, giving himself time to think about what books might even help him.

The journals wouldn't be much help, since Dipper had memorized them anyway, and they had no mention of a nightmare demon in them. Really, he had no idea what to be looking for, since Bill hadn't even really told him what demon it was. He didn't know enough about demons to just guess either.

He pulled over to the side of the road and groaned. There wasn't enough information to even make a trip to the library worth it. If the body really wasn't stolen, would exorcising Bill even work? What could a normal library even have that would give him any information he needed?

The only person he knew that had all of that information would be Bill. Dipper wasn't going to lie, knowing more about demons and the place Bill came from would be cool, but there was no way he was going to ask Bill about it. Could he? How much of the truth was Bill telling him?

He let out an annoyed scream and let his head fall onto the headrest of his seat.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" Bill's voice made Dipper nearly jump out of his seat.

He looked over and saw that Bill was suddenly in the passenger seat, reading a magazine.

"These books are so stupid. Why do humans find any pleasure in this?" He tossed it into the backseat and leaned against the passenger door so that he was facing Dipper.

"What the hell, where did you come from?" Dipper shouted.

"Calm down Pine Tree, teleportation is simple magic. I like to keep my eye on you, so I knew you were here, contemplating life, and decided to pop in."

"I'm still not going to help you."

Bill pursed his lips and took a deep breath. "How do you deal with these meatsacks anyway? I swear I'm always wanting something. I can't ever just be comfortable. Food, drink, sleep, showering, going to the bathroom, chemical emotions, breathing. It's a lot if you're in it for more than a day or two."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Then why don't you just leave? And how long have you had a body anyway?"

Bill smiled as if Dipper had asked him exactly what he wanted him to. "I can't go into the Mindscape right now unless I'm asleep in this body, so leaving isn't an option. As far as time, I've been in here long enough to get my ducks in a row."

"What does that mean?"

"It's an expression, it means-"

"You know what I meant Bill!" Dipper's face was hot with anger and he felt like taking another swing at the demon.

"Do I?" Bill tilted his head slightly to the side and smirked. "Anyway, I'd say it's been about two weeks. I haven't gotten used to it quite yet. All these eyes and organs. Not my thing."

A deep sigh forced its way into Dipper's lungs and he groaned again. He might as well ask as much as he can, as long as he didn't let himself get tricked into anything.

"You're going to have to answer some questions," Dipper said slowly.

Bill smiled and leaned forward, resting his arm on the armrest between them. "Only if I get to ask some in return."

"What could you possibly want to ask me?"

Bill didn't answer, but instead motioned or Dipper to ask a question.

"Fine. How did you get your body?"

"I made a deal with a human who had the ability to help me build one. I let him be rich, he gave me a body. My turn." He looked down at the arm rest and chewed his bottom lip. "You're not allowed to give me shit for this Pine Tree, but. . ."

Dipper almost smiled. Bill looked embarrassed, and seeing him like that made Dipper want to laugh. "But what?"

"Why did my body feel warm when I looked at Blue's legs? I haven't brushed up on my biology for humans and I don't know if I liked the way it made me feel. Is there a way to get rid of it?"

Dipper couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. "Oh my god Bill, you don't know why it made you feel funny?"

Bill sat back and glared at him. "I told you that you couldn't give me shit for it. And I answered your question, so answer mine."

At first Dipper thought he was messing with him, but he could see that Bill really didn't know what was going on. "Well," his voice cracked. "I'm not going to give you the birds and the bees speech, but basically what you're feeling is when humans want to. . . well, when they want to reproduce. You know," he huffed "have sex."

Bill kept his glare on Dipper and didn't move. "I'm going to get a computer and cellphone later, and I'll have to use the internet thing you guys made to look up what all of that means. Blue told me about some of that crap, so I might as well use it."

Dipper thought about advising him not to, since he knew exactly what would come up, but the thought of Bill's reaction to it was too funny to pass up. "Alright, you do that. Who's Blue anyway? I know you do that nickname thing, but here we use people's names."

Bill scoffed. "I have my reasons for them. And it's that girl we're paired up with for that stupid homework thing, which I'm not going to do, by the way."

"Claire?" he shouted. Anger rose up into his chest and he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, Blue." Bill returned the gesture and crossed his arms as he leaned back onto the door.

He didn't want to get into that with Bill right then, so he just took a deep breath and relaxed as much as he could. "Next question. What type of demon is it that's trying to give everyone nightmares, and why do you care if he gets away with it?"

"Obviously he's a dream demon like I am. And I only care because if we get rid of him, then I can get the hell out of this fleshbag and go back to the Mindscape. Now I get two questions."

"How do you figure?"

"You formed two questions into one sentence, but they were still two questions."

Dipper closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine, what else do you want to know?"

Bill looked out the windshield and let his head fall back onto the window. "If I look up that whole weird feeling thing, will it explain why sometimes when I wake up in the morning, my-"

"Yes!" Dipper stopped him. He did not want to hear about Bill's morning wood, and he was not about to explain it to him. "It will."

Bill gave him a strange look, but continued with his next question. "Will it happen when I look at everyone's legs, or just girls, or just boys? Like will I feel it when I look at another person wearing shorts? 'Cause Star was wearing shorts, what happens if-"

Dipper cut him off again. "If it happens when you look at Mabel, you tell me, so I can finish beating the snot out of you!"

"Geez Pine Tree, okay. I won't look at Star's legs."

"You'd better not," he growled.

"Anyway, this body is exhausted. Drive me home Pine Tree?" He put his seatbelt on and made himself comfortable in the seat.

Dipper groaned. "Why can't you just teleport back?"

"Magic uses energy. I'm tired, so I can't use it right now."

"Fine, where do you live then?" Dipper snapped at him, but was actually a little curious about where Bill was staying, since it seemed like Bill really didn't know much about how humans lived.

"Third street. Next to the library. You were headed there anyway, weren't you?"

Next to the library was an apartment building. A nice one too. Dipper pulled away from the curb and made his way through the traffic, driving slowly to try and get more answers from the demon. "Yeah, but how are you staying at such a nice place?"

"I just use my magic to trick the guy to let me stay there. It's pretty comfortable." He looked out the window and let his head relax onto the chair. "A little lonely though," he added quietly.

Dipper ignored the after thought, and shook his head. "That's wrong Bill."

"Well then, are you going to let me stay with you?"

"No!" he said quickly.

"That's what I thought."


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the ride, Bill was surprisingly quiet, giving Dipper time to think about what his next move would be with him. He seemed pretty willing to share information, and didn't seem like he was lying. He knew he still couldn't trust him, but he figured he'd get as much information out of it as he could.

As he pulled up to the building, he decided that until he saw an actual threat, he was just going to string Bill along as far as he could.

"We're here," he scoffed. He looked over and saw that Bill was out cold.

While sleeping, the demon almost looked harmless. In fact, the body Bill made looked almost cute while not being animated by him.

Dipper shook his head and nearly slapped himself. Whether the body was cute or not, it was still Bill, and that alone made him sick to his stomach.

"Bill," Dipper grabbed his shoulder and shook him a little "wake up!"

His eyes opened slowly, and Dipper realized that they were almost a golden color.

"Sorry Pine Tree, like I said, this body is inconvenient." He rubbed his eyes and unbuckled himself.

"Has anyone asked you about your eyes?"

Bill raised an eyebrow. "No, why?"

"Well they aren't really a normal color."

Bill shrugged and opened the car door. "No complaints yet. Sweet dreams Pine Tree!" He closed the door and sauntered into the apartment building.

Dipper sat in his car for a moment. The being friendly thing felt weird, but he had to stick to his guns until he could get what he wanted from the demon.

"Hey Dipper, how'd the library go?" Mabel asked as soon as he got home. She was cuddled up on the couch with a mug of hot cocoa and had the TV playing some romance show.

Dipper plopped down next to her and sighed. "I ended up just taking Bill home. He just teleported into the car, and we talked, then I drove him home."

Mabel turned the TV down and offered him what was left of her drink. "Did you find out more about what he wants?"

He accepted the cocoa, and drank most of it in one swig. "Kind of. He says it's a dream demon like he is, but I didn't get much more than that 'cause he started to ask about human stuff and got weird about it."

"How so?"

Dipper cringed. Again, he did not want to talk about Bill and his personal issues, so he just shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it just felt weird talking to him like that. He actually made me laugh once."

Mabel nodded and adjusted herself into a more comfortable position on the couch. "Where does Bill even live anyway?"

"The Grande Floor."

"Seriously? How did he swing that?"

"Well, he told me he just uses magic to trick the guy that owns it into letting him stay there." Dipper finished the drink then set it on the brown coffee table between he and the TV.

Mabel kept her stare on him and made a weird face. "That's not cool."

He shrugged and stood up. "That's what I said, then he joked about staying with us."

"Well technically he could, mom and dad are always gone for work or on trips, and we have that guest room."

"Mabel!"

She snorted and waved her hand at him. "I'm totes joking bro-bro. Try to get some sleep tonight, 'kay? For me?"

Dipper shrugged. "I can try."

Thankfully he was able to drift off after a while of tossing and turning, but it was a tainted victory, since he found himself in the same Mindscape surrounding of trees.

Again, he walked around for a little while, ignoring the silence. Something seemed a little different about the trees this time though, and it gave him an unsettling feeling.

"Hey, Pine Tree! Finally I found you!"

Bill, but not quite Bill, appeared in front of him. He was still in his human form, but was dressed in a yellow, long-sleeved shirt and black shorts, had black in his hair, and his yellow eyes were glowing.

"You didn't seem to have any trouble finding me in my car."

"Kid, compared to the Mindscape your reality is the size of a rock." With the snap of his fingers, the trees turned into doors, all with their own unique design.

"What the hell?"

Bill nudged Dipper with his arm. "Neat huh? I took us to the entrance of everyone's heads. Each door leads to someone's specific area in the Dreamscape that they experience when they come here."

"Whoa," Dipper couldn't help but be amazed by the sight of all of the doors. "Why though?"

Bill started to walk over to a brightly colored door, one with stickers and glitter randomly placed on it. "Figures you would be this close to your sister," he chuckled.

"Why are we here Bill?"

"I'm mad at you by the way," he said, avoiding the question. "I looked up what we talked about yesterday, and I have to say, I wish you would've just told me. It would have saved me a lot of pain."

Dipper laughed, harder than he wanted to, and had to calm himself before speaking again. "I thought you would've already known all that stuff. Aren't you 'all knowing'?"

Bill crossed his arms and glared at him. "Of course I knew, it's just not something that stays in the forefront of all the rest of the information I have. I just needed a reminder, that's all."

Dipper caught himself smiling at the demon, and wiped it from his face quickly. "Stop changing the subject Bill, why are we here?"

"My, my Pine Tree, just enjoy the fun for once will you?" His smile faded too, and he leaned on Mabel's door. "There won't be much left of it once he starts attacking people."

"Is that why we're here? The demon?"

The smile returned to Bill's face and he pushed off the door, flinging himself to another door. It was white and plain, but had a beautifully sculpted doorknob. "Follow me, Pine Tree." He opened the door, and disappeared into it.

Dipper contemplated staying there and trying to wake himself up, but figured he'd better see what Bill was playing at.

As soon as he stepped into the door, he found himself in a strange version of the town, with some of the buildings mixed up, and it seemed to be empty of people.

"You're so slow kid, keep up!" Bill was jogging playfully, but Dipper continued to walk cautiously, since he wasn't sure where he had been lead to.

A sudden, loud, scream filled his ears and it caused him to jump. He could almost feel himself wake up, but he focused on staying in the Mindscape to find what had caused the scream.

Bill's playful run turned into a full on sprint, and Dipper ran to keep up with him.

At the end of one of the streets, a guy he knew from school was being pinned to the ground by a black mass, that had what looked like red, glowing eyes.

"Listen to me carefully Pine Tree," Bill whispered as they stopped a few yards from the creature. "You're going to need to help me fight this thing."

"What? Are you crazy!"

"I never said I wasn't," he chuckled. "You're going to have to distract it while I prepare to kill it," he said more seriously. "I don't care what you do, just keep the thing entertained while I try to kill it."

"What is that thing?"

Bill rolled his eyes and looked antsy. "The demon uses these shadows to give people nightmares, which creates a different kind of magic than we usually use, that he can harness. The more nightmares, the more powerful he becomes. Then once he's strong enough, he'll trap everyone in the Mindscape, and use them as constant fuel."

"This is what you needed my help with? And all I have to do is distract these things so you can kill them off?"

"Yes," he hissed. "But we have to hurry. Once it gets what it needs it disappears, and tracking these things isn't easy. Now stop asking questions and go poke it or something."

Dipper looked back over at the shadow. "It can't hurt me, can it?"

"Only if you're afraid of it. You aren't scared, are ya' Pine Tree?"

"Of course not," he huffed.

"Then go distract it already!"

Dipper took a deep breath. Maybe he was afraid, at least a little. But he wasn't going to admit that to Bill. Stepping lightly, he walked quickly over to the shadow and yelled at it.

"Hey, blob!"

Both the shadow and the guy looked over to Dipper and gave him a strange look.

"Come and get me!" he said tauntingly.

The shadow let go of the kid, then made its way over to Dipper. It was a good two feet taller than he was, and its presence was warm and uncomfortable.

Unsure of what to do next, he did what Bill told him to, and poked it. Well, he punched it, but the shadow acted as if he had only poked it.

Dipper laughed nervously, and looked over at Bill, who seemed like he was just standing there.

The shadow made a low, growling sound, and was clearly trying to intimidate Dipper.

He remembered what Bill said about being afraid, so he stood his ground.

It raised its hand, as if it were going to strike him, but then a sudden flash of light made it pause.

Bill had changed, his once normal appearance now looked deformed. A permanent looking smile on his face showed that all of his teeth were now sharp, his eyes were fully yellow with cat-like iris', and he had sharp, long claws on each hand.

Before Dipper even knew what was happening, Bill charged at the demon and tore through it, making it evaporate.

Dipper stared at Bill, who was now in front of him, in disbelief. There were horns on his head, and his hair was almost all black. He looked terrifying.

The guy was still sitting on the ground, and when he looked at Bill, he was clearly more scared than he had been by the shadow.

"He's waking up, brace yourself Pine Tree!"

Dipper suddenly felt as if he was being ripped off his feet by a strange force, and it caused his body to panic as soon as he returned from the Mindscape.

Mabel came running into the room, and forced him awake. "Dipper! Dipper!"

He opened his eyes and sat up quickly, almost slamming into her.

"Are you okay? You were screaming."

The room seemed real enough, and Mabel, in her pink and purple pajamas, was clearly real.

"I'm fine. Just got woken up wrong I guess."

"Did Bill do this to you?"

The image of Bill's demon form flashed in his head and he shivered. "No, it wasn't his fault. I'll tell you about it later."

Mabel nodded and sat on the bed next to him. "It's already almost time to get up for school. Do you want me to make breakfast bro? I can make some Mabel Juice!"

"I would love some pancakes, but I think I'll pass on the Mabel juice," he laughed.

"One stack of flaps comin' up!"

After they ate their towers of pancakes, they headed off to school, ready to face the day.

Dipper's first three classes were boring, as usual, and he was prepared for lunch to be boring as well, since Mabel had to go to another meeting, but to his surprise, Bill came and sat by him.

"You got that Rip headache today too Pine Tree?"

"Rip headache?"

Bill leaned on the table and nodded. "When you're in someone else's Mindscape space and they wake up, you're ripped back to your own, and if you wake up right after, it gives you a headache."

Dipper shrugged. "My headache went away after I ate this morning."

"Lucky, lucky." A large smile spread on his face and he rested his chin on his hand. "That kid shares a second period with me, by the way. He kept staring at me. I think he's afraid of me," he laughed.

"That's a good thing?" Dipper looked at Bill closely trying to burn the normal image of him in his mind so he could forget the demon one. He was wearing a yellow jacket with a black shirt underneath it, black jeans, his eyes were the same gold as before, and his hair was fully blond and fluffy.

"Whether people are scared of me or not, I don't care. I just think it's kind of funny if they are." He paused for a moment then smirked. "You're not afraid of me now, are you Pine Tree?"

"No," he answered too quickly. He knew Bill was going to read him like an open book, why didn't he just say, "kind of"?

Bill laughed and rolled up his sleeves, revealing what looked like tattoos on his wrists. "I swear, this body is too cold, then it's too hot. You seem to be comfortable with your sleeves rolled up on your hoodie though, so I'm going to try that."

"Are those tattoos?"

Bill looked down at his wrists. "Geez kid, don't you know a binding symbol when you see one? I can't just stick to this body like I do with possession."

"Why not?" Dipper crossed his arms and leaned onto the table, eyeing the symbols.

Bill held them out almost proudly, letting him take in the details of each mark. "Just a lot of stupid crap. I'm here now though, so that's what matters."

Dipper nodded slowly, deep in thought. Why did Bill show him the thing keeping him in the body? Did he know that Dipper wouldn't go so far as to cut off his hands to get him to leave? It's not like he wanted Bill gone at this point anyway though since he knew the threat was very much real.

"Why do you need me to distract the thing while you change into. . . whatever it is that you changed into?"

Bill put his hands down and bit his lip. "Well, if for some reason it does see me while I'm changing, it can kill me. I can't fight back while I'm changing, and it takes me some time to get where I need to be to kill them."

Dipper was shocked by his blunt honesty. He was not expecting him to be so open about it. "So, you need me to protect you while you change?" he smirked.

"Pine Tree, I needed someone who wasn't an idiot, who I knew would care about saving people, and can be aware that they're in the Mindscape. You happen to fit that bill."

"There's got to be more than that."

Bill pointed upwards, seconds before the bell rang, and smiled. "I would tell you, but we've got to get to class."


	4. Chapter 4

When they walked into class, they noticed the desks had been moved into groups of three, and Dipper wasn't sure how to feel. On one hand, he would be next to Claire, but on the other hand, Bill was going to be there too.

"Hey, real quick before class starts, let's not tell Claire that you're a demon, alright? Can you not say anything about anything supernatural to her?"

Bill sat down and smirked at him, purposefully angling himself to look menacing. "Oh, Pine Tree, I wasn't going to tell anyone. They'll all find out soon enough."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

He didn't answer though, since Claire sat down and smiled at them. "What's what supposed to mean?"

"I told him he looks nice today, but he always thinks everything I say is sarcastic and mean. Don't you Pine Tree?"

Claire giggled. "Pine Tree? Why does he call you that?"

"He gives everyone nicknames. Yours is Blue."

"Blue?" She thought for a moment then smiled. "Oh, 'cause of my eyes?"

Bill tapped his nose. "We've got a sharp tack on our team."

The bell rang and quieted Dipper's remark, but he would save it for later.

Mr. Ferritz explained that on the days the desks were arranged in threes, would be the days they worked on the group project, and the days where they were normal, would be days that they would do normal work, then let them all get to work.

"I've got the rough drafts of the poster done already. I stayed up all night to do them," she laughed.

"Oh, let's see!" Bill smiled at her and leaned forward.

She smiled and opened up her notebook. "So they're obviously just sketches, but I like them so far. I'm stuck between this one," she showed a picture of Gogh's famous painting, Starry Night, but with blood drops instead of stars "and this one" she flipped the page to a picture of a hand holding a paintbrush covered in blood. "Sorry for the blood fest, but I just think his tragic death had to be his worst moment, right?"

Bill leaned back in his chair and looked like he was trying to hold his tongue from saying something he shouldn't. "Good choice Blue."

"Yeah those are really cool. I think I like the hand one better though. Really drives it home, I think."

"Okay, cool, I'll start a much bigger one tomorrow. Did you decide what your anecdote is going to be about?"

Dipper mentally smacked himself. Between dealing with Bill and having his freak out, he didn't have much time to do anything. "Not yet, sorry."

"That's fine. We literally have a ton of time before it's due. I just got a head start," she laughed.

Dipper looked over to Bill, and stared at him for a moment. He still couldn't get the image of his demon form out of his head.

"I don't bite Pine Tree."

Dipper snapped out of his daydream about what had happened in the Mindscape, and looked Bill in the eye. "Sorry, just spaced out I guess."

Bill's expression was almost solemn, and he looked down at the desk to avoid any more awkward staring.

Claire could sense the tension between the two and cleared her throat. "So do you two know each other? I thought you said you didn't know much about him, but you seem to know each other."

The shark-like smirk returned to Bill's face and he looked to Dipper.

"O-oh, yeah, we do. I didn't recognize him at first, but we used to hang out in Gravity Falls when I visited a couple summer ago."

"We were really close at one point. It was like we shared everything." Bill kept his gaze on Dipper and his smirk remained, taunting Dipper to snap at him.

"I have the scars to prove it," he chuckled dryly.

Claire laughed. "It's like you're an old married couple."

They both shot her a strange look. "We are not," they said in unison.

She laughed even harder, and it drew some attention to their table. "Don't poke too much fun at each other though. I wouldn't want to have to pull you apart."

"How about this; I'll agree to stop if you ask me to, if I go too far with the poking part, if you teach me how to use the cell phone I just got. Deal?" He reached his arm out for her to shake it, and Dipper's heart nearly stopped.

"Bill," he snapped.

She shook his hand and chuckled. "Deal."

Bill looked back over at Dipper, who was seething mad, and had to clench his mouth shut to keep from yelling at him.

He sat angrily for the rest of class, watching Claire show Bill where certain settings and buttons were, and she added both her and Dipper's number to his phone for him.

The bell rang and she stood up quickly, putting her notebook back into her binder. "I gotta get to my next class early to set up my art stuff. See you guys later!"

"Thanks Blue!" Bill yelled after her.

Dipper stood up slowly and was ready to pounce on Bill to whale on him, as soon as they were alone enough.

Right before they made it to their next class, Dipper grabbed Bill's hand and dragged him to the same place they had fought before.

"Whoa Pine Tree, we're holding hands already? I thought you'd at least treat me to dinner first." He joked, but he knew exactly what Dipper had brought him there to do.

Dipper slammed him into the wall again, and held his jacket. "I don't care what else you do, you do not make deals with people, do you understand me?"

"We're going to be late for class Pine Tree," he sang.

Dipper's face was nearly red from anger, but he took a few calming breathes so that he didn't fight with him again, since he knew he would lose anyway. "Don't make anymore deals, alright?"

In one motion, Bill flipped the situation around, and was suddenly the one holding Dipper to the wall.

His face was less than an inch from Dipper's and he had a terrifying grin on his face. "I'm the one who makes the rules, Pine Tree."

Dipper's heart was racing. He couldn't tell if Bill was messing with him or not, but either way, the way Bill was nearly picking him up off the ground by his collar, was freaking him out.

"Let's not have this happen again. Next time I won't be as pretty to look at." He loosened his grip and let Dipper fall. "Besides," he said in a much lighter tone "I literally gave her the power to stop me when I'm being too rude to you, in exchange to learn a few buttons. You heard the whole deal, it wasn't anything bad."

Dipper stood dumbfounded, still a little afraid of Bill's threat.

They didn't speak to each other in Math, and Dipper could tell that Bill found it amusing.

When the final bell rang, Dipper rushed out of class to his locker. He stuffed his books in quickly, then made his way out to the car as fast as he could.

"By the way, I meant to say earlier, you drive like an old lady Pine Tree." Bill was there, leaning against the car, blocking the way into the driver's seat.

A buzzing in his pocket stopped him from commenting, and he saw that Mabel sent him a text saying that she was staying late, and that she would get a ride home from a friend.

"Shooting Star not joining us today?"

"Joining us?"

"Yeah, we're hanging out at your place today Pine Tree."

Dipper crossed his arms and sighed. "When was this decided?"

"When I decided that I had more questions that I want answered. Besides, I know you have more you'd like to ask me. A question for a question, that was our deal right?"

"I never made a deal with you!" Dipper growled.

"Calm down Pine Tree, just a phrase. Anyway, let's head to your place."

Dipper held firm and didn't move to get into the car.

Bill stared him down and smirked. "We could always go to my place. The choice is yours Pine Tree. My place or yours?"

"Dude, don't phrase it like that," he mumbled as he pushed past Bill to get into the car.

Bill laughed and quickly made his way over to the passenger side. The way he moved made it look like he was almost excited to go, and it threw Dipper off a little.

"So, what'll it be? The Pines home or the Cipher abode?"

"I'm not getting stuck alone with you in an apartment." Dipper drove silently for the rest of the way, and avoided looking at Bill, who he could tell was enjoying this way too much.

As soon as the car stopped at the house, Bill got out triumphantly, and followed Dipper closely as they went inside.

"So, this is where you plot and scheme, huh Pine Tree?"

"Plot and scheme? If anything you're the one that 'plots and schemes'."

Bill made his way over to the couch and plopped down, draping his arm over the back. He let out a relaxed sigh and closed his eyes. "This couch is so comfortable. You humans and these stupid bones, always needing something soft underneath you."

Dipper debated sitting by him, but after how close they had gotten earlier, he figured he'd better keep his distance for a little while. "Do you want something to drink? Soda or something?"

"Sure! But don't give me too much, I don't need this body addicted to caffeine."

Dipper couldn't help but smile, but he ducked into the kitchen so that Bill couldn't see it. He didn't care for the demon seeing that he could make him laugh.

He brought in two sodas, and placed one in front of Bill on the coffee table. "There. You do know how to open it, right?"

Bill glared at him as he picked up the soda, popped the top, then took a big swig of it. "I'm not an idiot Pine Tree."

He sat down, then put his hand up in defense and smirked. "Just making sure. Maybe it wasn't something that stayed fresh in your mind, like the birds and the bees thing."

Bill kept his glare on Dipper, but didn't seemed too phased by his remark. "So, my first question," he started.

"Whoa, whoa. If I remember correctly, we left off with you asking questions. It's my turn."

"Fine," he laughed. "Ask away."

He had to rack his brain for a good question. There was too much uncertainty about how many questions Bill would actually answer, and he didn't want to waste any of them. "When you change in the Mindscape, I thought your demon form was the triangle. How come you turn into that?"

"Changing form here changed my demon form as well. To put it simply, I changed too much to change back into that. Now my form changes into what it can with what it has to work with." He took another large drink from the soda, then got a thinking look on his face.

The curious look made Dipper nervous. Really any look Bill gave made him nervous, but the curious look meant he was about to ask him something weird, he could just feel it.

"Why do you smell good?"

Weird question was right, and it made Dipper laugh nervously. "W-what do you mean?"

Bill set his soda down on the table, and leaned forward, getting uncomfortably close to Dipper's face again.

Dipper nearly spilled his soda, but set it down just in time for Bill to push him down into the armrest of the couch. "What the hell are you doing?" he shouted.

"Just tell me why you smell good, and I'll leave you alone," he laughed in a way that made Dipper squirm.

"It's just the stuff I use in the shower I guess."

Bill was nearly on top of him, smirking down at his confused face. "Oh, that specific soap that smells good right? I just use the generic crap."

"Yeah, now can you please get off of me?"

Instead of moving off of him, Bill put his arm down by his shoulder and let himself get even closer to Dipper's face. "Sorry Pine Tree, I just love to watch you squirm." The tone of voice he used sent chills down Dipper's spine, and he became angry.

"Let me go Bill!" He didn't push him off or anything, since he knew physical contact with Bill meant getting his ass handed to him.

Bill pushed himself off and grabbed his soda, getting back into a comfortable position. "Alright, your turn."

"What the hell was that about?" Dipper sat up quickly, and positioned himself so that he couldn't easily be pushed back down.

Bill smirked and looked at him through the corner of his eye. "I told you, I love to watch you squirm. The look on your face is too priceless."

"I don't care, it's not okay." Dipper stared him down, his face hot with both anger and embarrassment.

"Fine, I'll leave you be. Unless you deserve it."

The front door unlocked, and Mabel and her friend Jessica walked in, holding some baskets full of decorations. "Hey, Dipper, don't mind us, we're just going to put-" the basket fell to the ground and her train of thought derailed as soon as she saw Bill, sitting comfortably on the couch.

"Oh hey Star, long time no see."

"Are you okay?" Jessica grabbed Mabel's basket and nudged her arm.

"Would you go wait in my room for me? And Dipper, kitchen, now please?"

Mabel waited for the house to become silent, Jessica waiting in her room, and Bill sitting impatiently on the couch, before whisper shouting at Dipper. "You were the one who got all worked up about him being here, and now you brought him home!"

"He's harmless. For the most part."

Mabel folded her arms and looked at the clock on the stove.

It wasn't too late into the day, but it was late enough that it was time to start settling down for the night, and the warmness of the house compared to the outside was relaxing. Mabel wanted it to be like that, at least, relaxing, but her nerves were rattling in her gut and she wasn't sure how to even react. "Look, Dipper," she sighed. "Do what you need to with him. Just please, please be careful. Did you even find out exactly what he needs from you?"

"I have to keep him safe in the Mindscape while he fights off, what he calls, Shadows. Just this morning I woke up screaming because I got woken up wrong from the Mindscape because of one."

"Are they a real threat? Is he telling the truth?" She stepped closer to him and the look on her face broke Dipper's heart. Never had he seen her that worried, not even when Bill was trying to end the world.

"Mabel, I promise if I see any sign that he's tricking me, I'll step back away from it. As far as I can tell, the threat is real, but I'm going to just string him on until I get enough information to fight these things on my own."

"Oh Pine Tree, come back! I have more questions!"

Mabel shuddered at the sound of his voice. "It sounds like he's getting information from you too."

A lump formed in his throat and he babbled a bit before answering her. "T-trust me, it's not about us or anything."

She gave him a strange look then nodded. "I trust you Dipper. Don't let him hurt you."

He nodded seriously then hugged her. "I'm a brick wall. Nothing's tearing me down."

Bill was draped on the couch, playing around with the cell phone he had gotten somehow, and looked annoyed.

Mabel had hurried to her room, not wanting to face Bill again, and Dipper stood in front of the couch, not wanting to sit so close to the demon.

"Pine Tree, Pine Tree, Pine Tree." Bill clicked his tongue at him as he put his phone away. "You should know better than to keep a guest waiting."

"Sorry," he said sarcastically. "I had to keep Mabel from bringing out the crosses and holy water."

"Why, it wouldn't have done anything."

They both paused, and through the thin walls they could hear Mabel and Jessica talking about decorating the gym.

"Anyway, it's my turn for an answer. What does your room look like?"

Dipper gave a confused look then glared at him. "Like a room. Why?"

"I just want to compare it to mine. Make sure I'm doing it right. Show me?"

He was hesitant at first, but shrugged. "Fine. But I promise it's not anything impressive." He lead him through the house to his room, and opened the door, but didn't step in. "There, that's my room."

Bill stepped past him and went to examine it closer. "Wow Pine Tree, not even a poster. Just pictures of that summer, and a few books. Total snore fest in here."

Dipper closed the door and pointed to the poster taped to the back of his door. "Bam, poster."

Bill snorted and rolled his eyes. "That's a poster of Sixer. It doesn't count."

"He's an accomplished writer with several PHDs. I think it counts."

Bill smirked and moved smoothly, almost like a snake to Dipper's bed, where he sat down and playfully patted the bed. "Come sit by me, Pine Tree."

Dipper crossed his arms and leaned against the door. "I'm good here, thanks. Why did you want in here anyway? You never do anything without a reason."

Bill laid on his bed, and made himself as comfortable as he could. The blanket was soft, and he couldn't help but snuggle into it. "Your bed is way softer than mine."

"Bill, answer the question."

"Come sit on the bed with me, then I will."

"Ugh, fine!" Dipper threw his arms up in defeat and sat on the very edge of the bed, as far as he could from Bill. "Now what?"

"I said with me, not over there."

"Oh my god, fine!" He tossed himself back and laid next to Bill, with his arms crossed. "I'm as, 'with you' as I'm going to get. Now why did we come into my room?"

Bill smirked and mimicked Dipper by crossing his arms and pouting. "We're sleeping. Together."

Before Dipper could respond, he felt a heaviness in his chest and his eyes slipped closed.

"Geez Pine Tree, always with this space," Bill chuckled.

They were in the Mindscape, and back in the forest Dipper seemed to dream about more often than not.

"Wait, I'm asleep? When did I fall asleep? I don't remember taking you home or anything."

Bill looked away and bit at his bottom lip. "I needed to make a point, so I put you to sleep."

"You knocked me out! You made me lay next to you so you could drug me?"

"Whoa, kid, I used magic, not a pill." Bill opened his arms as if he were showcasing the area around them. "I did it to show you that when we sleep next to each other, we'll end up in the same place here, saving me a bunch of time to find more shadows."

Dipper tried to force himself awake, but couldn't seem to. "How come I can't wake up?"

"Don't stress about that Pine Tree. We'll wake up in time for school. Now let's go, I know where three of them are."

Suddenly the doors appeared again, and Bill walked right over to one that was a gray and white striped door, and walked in quickly.

Dipper groaned and followed, annoyed that Bill had tricked him.

A place Dipper had never seen before, one with a lot of faceless people and nameless streets and buildings, was around them, but Dipper tried to keep his eyes on Bill.

"Pine Tree, we have to hurry tonight, I have to hit all three!" Bill walked faster, and stopped behind a building. "If you really want to help people, you're going to need to keep up and stop throwing fits. The first one is in this building, harassing the person inside."

Dipper took a deep breath, calming his anger, then nodded. "Alright, fine."

"And remember Pine Tree, we're in the Mindscape. You can do anything in here."


	5. Chapter 5

The building felt cold, and the only noise Dipper could hear inside was a dripping sound. It was a simple office-type building, with a reception desk and a lobby, but Dipper couldn't see anyone that needed help.

"Hello?"

The dripping stopped, and he heard a low whimper come from behind the desk.

He walked over to it, and ducked behind it, where he saw someone he didn't know, hiding underneath it.

"It's going to catch you, hide!" the person shouted.

Dipper looked up, and suddenly saw a shadow, towering over the desk. He jumped over the desk, then charged it, knowing that if he flinched even once it would hurt him.

It didn't flinch either though, so Dipper just slammed into it, and fell back, barely catching himself.

"For a shadow you're pretty solid," he laughed nervously. Remembering what Bill said, he made himself able to fly, so that he could get eye to eye with it. He kicked it with both legs, making it fall backwards for a moment, but it grabbed his leg and slammed him into the wall.

It slinked over to him, and opened what looked like a mouth, threatening to bite him, but a flash of light made the shadow pause and spin around.

"Took you long enough," Dipper scoffed.

Bill was standing there, in his terrifying form, slowly walking over to the shadow.

The girl that had been hiding behind the desk screamed loudly when she saw Bill, and nearly woke up, shaking the world around them.

"Pine Tree, keep her asleep!" Dipper hadn't noticed before, but in this form Bill's voice was even stranger than before, sounding more like it had an echo to it.

Dipper nodded then made his way over to the girl, and grabbed her hand. "Let's hide together okay?"

She followed him back under the desk, and they waited until they heard Bill's claws tear through the shadow.

"Next dream Pine Tree, now!"

Dipper hesitated for a moment, since he really didn't want to be so close to Bill right then, but then cringed and forced himself to anyway.

They appeared back at the doors, and Bill quickly found his way to a khaki colored door. "You don't have to distract this one, just keep the human asleep. Same with the one after this."

Dipper nodded and followed him into the door, keeping his mouth shut for the time being. Bill was going to get a good talking to in the morning.

The khaki door lead to a single room, where a person was hiding underneath a blanket in the bed.

"It's in the closet," Bill whispered. "Keep the human under the covers."

Bill acted quickly, and swung the door open, making a loud noise.

Dipper acted fast as well, and decided that speaking in a calm voice would keep the person from looking at Bill. "Hey, we're here to clean out the monster in the closet, stay where you are and we'll get rid of it. Just keep calm, and let us do our job."

Bill tore into the shadow, twice, then walked quickly, grabbing Dipper by the arm. "Come on grandma, next dream."

Meanwhile, in reality, Mabel's alarm blared to life, and woke her from her light sleep. She groaned loudly, then tossed her fluffy pink blanket to the side, exposing her panties. She hadn't felt like putting any pajamas on, so she just slept in her underwear, which was a mistake because the air felt freezing.

"The heater must've turned off," she mumbled. She put on gray sweater, that was long enough to wear just leggings underneath it, then she put on red leggings, and pushed a matching headband into her hair. "Time to go wake Dipper up," she said to herself, hoping to wake up a little more. She wanted to put a happy face on for Dipper, since she knew he was stressed out about Bill, so she smiled before opening her bedroom door.

When she opened Dipper's door, the sight was almost too much to process. There, in Dipper's bed, Bill and Dipper were lying together, fully clothed, thank god. Dipper was half way on top of Bill, and Bill had his arm around Dipper.

She couldn't help but laugh, and knew that no matter what the reason this happened was, she had to take a picture. She quickly snapped a picture, then closed the door, letting them sleep a little longer.

"I guess I'll go make breakfast for everyone," she smiled.

In the Mindscape, Dipper followed Bill into another door, and he didn't bother to look at the design of the door, since Bill seemed to be rushing.

"Same thing, keep the human asleep."

Dipper looked around, and saw a kid he knew, swimming. They had gone underwater, and he hadn't even noticed until he saw his classmate trying to swim to the surface, away from the shadow. The water didn't slow him down, since he knew it wasn't real, so he grabbed the guy, and pushed for the surface as quickly as he could.

"Dipper? What the hell?" It was someone Dipper never really spoke to, but he shared fourth period with he and Bill, so he was hoping not to let him see Bill in his demon form. "This is too weird, I have to be dre-" The world shook, and again Dipper felt a force pushing him away.

"Dammit Pine Tree, I told you to keep him asleep!"

Dipper opened his eyes, and sat up quickly, noticing Bill next to him, rubbing his eyes.

"I didn't have time to change back! I didn't even get the thing," he grumbled.

Dipper rubbed his head and squeezed his eyes shut. The Rip headache that time was way more intense than the last, and he had to keep his eyes closed for a moment before he could stand being awake.

"If I can do anything in the Mindscape, how come I can't kill the shadows? And why is you not having time to change back a bad thing?"

Bill was still rubbing his eyes, and sighed. "Too many questions too early Pine Tree." He sat up and stretched out his arms while yawning.

"And another thing! I don't care if it saves you time, this was not okay!"

A sudden pressure was on Dipper's hips, as Bill straddled him. He leaned forward and pressed his nose to Dippers, making Dipper's chest tighten.

He felt like his heart was about to jump out of his chest, and tried to move out from under Bill.

"Listen Pine Tree," his voice was low, and he was speaking softly "the faster we find those things, the less power he gets. If you want this to go smoothly, you will stop questioning every little thing I do and trust me. At least a tiny bit." He sat up, but stayed on Dipper. "I know it's not easy, and I hope you know I don't fully trust you either, but if you don't listen to me, then you'll be real sorry when we miss one that's bothering Blue, or Shooting Star."

Dipper glared up at him, trying to seem unaffected by what Bill was doing, even though he was sure Bill could feel his racing pulse. "Alright, fine. But you really need to stop doing this, it makes me uncomfortable."

Bill wiggled his hips and smirked. "Oh, I know," he laughed.

Dipper pushed him lightly, and instead of fighting him back, Bill moved with his hand and got off the bed.

"I need to change, but I don't really want you out there alone with Mabel. She doesn't trust you, and I don't think she's obligated to."

"No worries Pine Tree, I've seen it all. I've been in this body for long enough to know what's up. Plus the internet showed me plenty, thanks to you," he sneered.

Dipper laughed and shook his head. "I'm just going to change my shirt. I'm not about to get naked in front of you."

"Suit yourself Pine Tree." Bill crossed his arms and leaned against the door.

Dipper began to take off his shirt, but then suddenly felt really nervous. "Could you not watch me like that?"

Bill let out a loud laugh that sounded more genuine than his other laughs, and shook his head. "Watching you squirm is my new hobby, I told you that."

He quickly took off his shirt and tossed it aside, grabbed a red flannel shirt and buttoned it up as fast as he could, then rolled up the sleeves.

Bill smirked as he opened the door and motioned for Dipper to go first.

"Oh, you guys are up, finally!" Mabel had three plates of sausage, eggs, and bacon sitting on the table, and was sitting in front of one of them. "I made us all some breakfast, and in exchange you have to explain, this," she pulled out her cell phone and flashed them the picture she took "to me."

Bill laughed the same genuine laugh, but for much longer, and Dipper's face grew red.

"M-Mabel, I promise there's an explanation that's not super weird," Dipper sat down in a chair and found that he was nearly shaking from the amount of embarrassment. "We needed to fall asleep closer together to end up closer in the Mindscape. We have to hunt down those shadow things, and we have to do it fast since Bill has a hard time finding them again once they're gone."

She gave him a skeptical look, but nodded. "Alright. I trust you. Now dig in boys, I heard you arguing, and nothing helps bring people together like breakfast!"

Bill had stopped laughing, and was then sitting in front of the plate of food, staring at it.

"You do know how to eat it, right?" Dipper joked.

Bill glared at him. "I do, but I don't usually eat. I just use magic so that I don't have to. It's a waste of time."

"No wonder you're so skinny! I thought you were just scrawny like Dipper, but not eating will do that to you, magic or not."

"Hey! I am not scrawny." Dipper ate a large forkful of eggs and stared at Bill. "Just eat it dude. She was nice enough to make it, so eat it."

Bill shrugged, and picked up the fork. He poked at the food first, then picked it up and took a bite of it. "Wow, food isn't half bad." He proceeded to eat the food carefully, savoring each bite.

Once all the plates were empty, Mabel quickly picked them up and put them in the sink, to do later.

"Thanks Star, your food isn't a waste of time."

The twins were stunned by the compliment. It seemed like he actually meant it. They both looked to each other in silence, unsure of how to respond.

Suddenly Bill let out a loud laugh and he pointed at them. "You guys matched subconsciously! Having a twin seems hilarious!"

They examined each other's clothes and couldn't help but smile.

"Geez Dip, I woke up first, get your own color!" she giggled.

"I can go change then, but we'll be late."

"Oh, I'll come with!" Bill smirked and stood up from his chair.

"Nevermind, red is fine. Let's get going," Dipper grumbled.

The car ride to school was filled with an awkward silence. Dipper wasn't sure if Bill was enjoying the twins' inability to handle his morning comments, or if he was just bored at the moment, so he thought he would try to act normal to either ruin the demon's fun, or to brighten the mood for everyone.

"So, that kid didn't see you last night, right? We have fourth with the kid that was in the water, and he might freak out when he sees us."

Bill sighed, remembering the shadow that got away. "I knew he looked familiar. And no, I don't think so."

Mabel gave them a strange look. "I'll just assume it's Mindscape stuff, and leave it alone. I have too much on my mind for the dance to deal with your demon stuff too," she chuckled.

"Oh, god the dance. I haven't asked anyone yet," Dipper groaned.

Mabel gave a large smile and nudged Dipper's shoulder. "Claire still hasn't been asked yet," she sang.

"Blue?" Bill chimed in.

"Yeah, Claire." Dipper looked in the rear view mirror for a moment to see what expression Bill had. He looked tired, and his eyes were more yellow than usual.

"She told me that she thinks the dance is lame, and that she would rather go out to a movie or something."

"When did she tell you that?" A storm of jealousy filled Dipper's gut. When had Bill become close enough to her to even talk about that?

"Well you would know if you didn't get so spaced out in class. Sometimes people talk to you and you don't even remotely acknowledge them."

"That's not true!"

Mabel cleared her throat and bit her bottom lip. "Actually. . . You've done it to me before once or twice."

As soon as he stopped the car, Dipper got out in a huff.

"Thanks for the ride, Pine Tree!" Bill moved past him quickly, but before he vanished into the group of people, a few patches of black hair caught Dipper's eye. If Bill didn't change back before waking up, did his physical form reflect his demon form?

He shook the thought from his head and put his mind back where it needed to be for school and regular life. What was he going to do now that he knew Claire didn't want to go to the dance? Or was Bill lying when he said that? Why would he lie? Should he just ask her anyway to see what she'll say?

Taking a deep breath, he calmed his mind down. There was still a bit of the Rip headache bothering him, so he decided to take it slow. What ever came his way that day, would be dealt with as it came.

Again, classes flew by until lunch, and Dipper expected lunch to be filled with more Q&A with Bill, but instead Bill sat quietly in front of him, looking as if he was deep in thought.

"Did you run out of puns and sarcastic remarks?" Dipper said suddenly, hoping to end the silence.

"Kid with you around I have enough sarcastic remarks and puns to last the rest of eternity." The bored look remained on his face, and Dipper almost felt like he should ask what was wrong.

"Is there any particular reason you've been so quiet?" He worded his question carefully, so that it didn't sound like he was flat out asking, "are you okay?".

Bill blinked slowly and took a deep breath. "It's really hard to find the shadow that got away while I also have a Rip headache. This brain is so useless." Bill legitimately looked distressed, and Dipper couldn't help but feel bad.

"They seem to work fast. Is that part of the reason you rush from one to another?"

"I rush because the more time we spend with a shadow the easier it gets for him to find us. And kid, he's already pin pointing where we are." Bill turned his head and a small bruise on top of a little cut became visible on his chin.

"Did you fall or something?" Dipper grabbed Bill's chin and pulled it closer to his face so that he could examine it better.

Bill let the motion happen and just shrugged. "Some kid thought it was funny to try to beat me up because of my eyes. And instead of killing him, I just took it."

"Bill, that's not okay! You can't just let people beat you up."

"What else could I do Pine Tree?" he snapped. "My choices were let my body react to it and kill him, or sit back and take it. I don't think you would be so willing to help me if I starting slaughtering everyone who isn't nice to me."

Dipper nodded. "Alright, but if it keeps happening, let me know."

"Why?"

Dipper wasn't sure why. He didn't really care if Bill was getting beat up. Did he? Sure he wanted to punch him daily, but he just felt wrong about letting someone beat him up over something as small as his eye color. "It's just not cool for that person to get away with it."

"Whatever. No skin off my teeth, I heal pretty quickly, and I can keep my cool for a long time." He stood up and unzipped his jacket. The bell rang and Bill nodded to him. "I'm going to walk ahead." He put his hands in his pockets then quickly made his way out of the lunchroom.

The seats in the classroom were in their straight rows, and Dipper knew that that meant normal work day. No sitting next to Claire for him.

Without Bill or Claire to talk to, history passed slowly, giving Dipper time to organize his thoughts. Since he was unsure if Bill was lying about Claire wanting to go to the dance, maybe he would just ask her out that night anyway, and say it's a romantic gesture. Of course, Dipper wasn't really the romantic type, as far as he knew anyway, so he wasn't sure how well that would work.

His next class, Bill sat away from him without a word, and when school was over, he seemingly just disappeared. Which was possible, since he could teleport.

Dipper didn't dwell on it too much though, since he was actually relieved to have a break from him.

"Where's Bill?" Mabel asked as he came into the front room. She had just changed into lazy clothes, and was ready to sit and binge watch her favorite TV shows after a long day of planning.

"As if I know. By the way, you should totally delete that picture."

Mabel laughed and shook her head. "No way bro-bro! That thing is my new wallpaper!"

Dipper huffed and felt his face get hot. "Anyway, I'm actually glad he's ignoring me right now. It's been two days of nothing but Bill, and that's enough for me."


	6. Chapter 6

"Whatever you say Dipper." She turned on the TV and changed it to the recordings of her favorite show. "By the way," she said absentmindedly "I have to stay after school the rest of this week. So only two days, but just thought I'd let you know, Jessica will be taking me home."

"Alright, fine with me." Dipper didn't want to watch the shows Mabel was watching, so he decided to just go hang out in his room.

Hours of reading later, he eventually drifted off, falling asleep with his clothes on and the book in his hand.

The usual trees surrounded him, and he half expected Bill to jump out from behind one of them, but after a while of waiting, he saw no sign of him.

"Bill? Aren't you going to drag me around the Mindscape?"

No answer.

"Hello? Bill?"

Still, only silence. Without Bill around, the Mindscape suddenly felt a little boring. As much as Dipper hated to admit it, at least with Bill around the Mindscape had something to do in it.

Wait, what was he saying? He was going to enjoy this time away from Bill, whether it seemed boring or not. Though he still couldn't help wonder where Bill had gone. Hopefully it wasn't because he was doing something bad.

The wandering around the trees stopped, and Dipper was suddenly awake.

"Time to get up Dipping Sauce! I don't have time to make big breakfast this morning, but I did make you a bowl of cereal, so hurry so it doesn't get all soggy!" Mabel only peaked her head into the room, and seemed like she was in a hurry.

"Okay, thank you Mabel," he mumbled.

He got up and changed his whole outfit, glad that he didn't have to have an audience.

Mabel was dressed in a plain (plain for her anyway) outfit, and her hair was tossed up into a messy bun, a clear sign that she had a lot on her mind.

"Why the rush this morning? More meetings?" Dipper asked as he sat down in front of the untouched bowl of cereal. He began to quickly shovel it into his mouth as he waited for her response.

"Yeah. That and I woke up late," she laughed. "Now hurry and eat, we're going to be late!"

At school, Dipper was bracing himself for Bill making up lost time and annoying him, but when lunch rolled around, there was no sign of him. In fourth period, the seats were in groups again, but again, no Bill.

"Where's Bill today?" Claire asked as she sat at the table.

Dipper shrugged. As he stared at the empty desk, a heat rose up in his chest. He was alone with Claire. He could ask her out.

"Huh, he hasn't answered my text either. I asked him if he wanted to do the group thing for the dance. Speaking of which, my friends are dragging me to the dance and instead of dates. Do you want to come with me?"

He was sure his face turned red, and he fumbled around his words before giving a clear answer. "Y-yeah. I don't know if Bill does dances very well though."

She nodded. "Yeah, he's kind of a weird guy. But weird is fun, so that's okay." The chair creaked as she leaned back and crossed her arms. "So you two knew each other really well?"

The nervousness went away, and was replaced by discomfort. He wasn't sure how to tiptoe around the whole, he's a demon who tried to end the world and I stopped him, thing. "Well, it's more of he started just hanging out around Mabel and I, and eventually we got really close, then summer ended and we didn't see each other much after that."

"Isn't that the summer all that weird stuff happened?"

He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, trying to to think of what to say. "Yeah, it was really weird. My Grunkle Ford was the one who helped put an end to it."

"Oh yeah, your 'grunkle' is that super smart guy huh?" She smiled and leaned forward, interested in what he had to say.

It made him nervous again, and his words came out in more of an awkward jumble than actual words. "Yeah, he's went to school a lot." Dipper cringed at his words.

She giggled and shook her head. "Well, anyway, if you see Bill, ask if he wants to come anyway. I think it'll be good for him to get out and meet more people here."

Dipper smiled and nodded, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized it would probably be best to keep Bill away from as many humans as possible. He had no idea what Bill would do at the dance, and with how he had acted so far, he knew Bill would do something to embarrass him.

The rest of the class, Dipper watched as Claire worked on the poster, and he decided it would be a good idea to start getting his anecdote going.

Writing about Van Gogh would be easy. He needed to look up some more minor details, but Dipper knew a lot about him for the most part.

"I'll see you tomorrow Dipper. Try to see if Bill is working on his part of the project," she said when the bell rang.

"Okay, I'll see if I can get a hold of him."

When the end of school came, Dipper sat in his car in the parking lot, gripping the steering wheel. He really didn't care if Bill was there or not, but he couldn't just ignore his absence either. If something bad had happened to him, then Dipper would feel bad for at least not trying to see what had happened. And if he was up to something bad, then Dipper wanted to know right away.

He let out a frustrated groan. "At least Mabel isn't here to see what I'm about to do," he mumbled to himself as he drove to The Grande Floor.

Dipper had only ever been to the fancy apartment one other time, and he only ever made it into the lobby. He wasn't sure what he could really do, since he had no idea which one Bill stayed in, but he figured he should at least try.

"W-which apartment is William Anderson in?" Dipper asked the person in the lobby area. He was hoping Bill was staying under the same name as the one he used for school, and tried to look as confident as possible.

"Are you. . . Pine Tree?" The older lady asked as she eyeballed her computer screen.

Dipper rolled his eyes. Of course he would put his name as Pine Tree.

"There's a message here for you that says you can just walk in. He's in thirty-six C." She went back to typing something out, and ignored Dipper's thanks.

Bill must've been expecting him to come, which irked Dipper. He hated that Bill could just guess stuff like that.

For a building full of people, it was strangely quiet, and Dipper's footsteps echoed off the hardwood flooring in the hallway.

As expected, the heavy door was unlocked, and Dipper stepped inside carefully.

The walls in what was supposed to be the living room, were covered from top to bottom with papers that had strange symbols written all over them, and the only furniture was a big, yellow, lovesac in front of a large, flat-screen TV attached to the wall.

He made his way to the left, where there was a kitchen, that had new stainless steel appliances, but wasn't decorated in anyway.

Past that, there was a small hallway that had a door to the left, a door to the right, and one at the end.

"Bill? Where are you?" he yelled, annoyed.

With no answer, Dipper decided to try the doors. The first one on the left was locked, the one in the middle led to a bathroom, which for some reason smelled like cherries, and finally the door on the right lead into a bedroom, that had colorful pictures covering every inch of the wall, a desk covered in open books, and a queensized bed, where Bill was lying, out cold.

The books peaked Dipper's interest, and he couldn't pass up the chance to see what Bill was reading up on.

Unfortunately though, upon closer inspection, he realized that the books were all in a language he didn't recognize.

Sighing, he decided it was time to try and wake up Bill.

"Hey, wake up!" Dipper nudged his arm, but Bill remained motionless. He could see his chest rising and falling, but other than that there was no signs of life. "Bill, stop messing with me, come on." He lightly patted his face, and he reacted a little, but still didn't wake up. "Bill! You're not funny!" Dipper smacked him a little harder, and that time Bill shot up and gasped.

"Geez Pine Tree, we need a safe word before you start the rough stuff."

Dipper's face turned red with both anger and embarrassment. He opened his mouth to snap at Bill, but saw that he was rubbing his eyes with a general grogginess about him. "Have you been asleep all day?"

Bill looked up at him and cringed at the light coming through the curtains. "Yeah. Got stuck in the Mindscape. I figured you'd come to rescue me, Pine Tree," he laughed.

"Stuck? How did you manage that?" Dipper sat on the bed near Bill's feet, causing Bill to smirk.

"Had to lure the demon off our trail and went too far in. I needed someone to wake me up physically, and luckily I have sweet little Pine Tree looking after me."

Dipper glared at him and crossed his arms. "You're lucky I'm a nice guy. I very easily could've left you here to die."

Bill rolled his eyes and took his shirt off, making Dipper look away. "Don't be shy Pine Tree, it's just a torso."

He sighed and looked back at Bill, noticing that his chest was covered in more of the tattoos like he had on his wrists. There was one large one in the center of his chest that was circular and had writing Dipper had never seen before, and there were a few smaller ones lining his ribcage that had symbols between words that he couldn't make out. "More binding symbols?"

"No, learn to read Pine Tree, they're lots of different things. A few of which keep this body alive for extended periods of time. I would have eventually found my way back, and my body would be fine. A little slow on start, but fine." He tossed his blanket off and stood up, stretching out as much as he could. "You waking me up early is just more convenient."

"How do you know he was getting close anyway? You don't talk to him, do you?"

Bill looked back at him and a devilish smile spread on his face. "Why, jealous Pine Tree?"

"Just answer the question Bill," he sighed.

He sat back down next to Dipper and mimicked his posture. "The fact that a lot of the kids at school have shadows in their heads. He's going to try and overwhelm me with them at some point, and the closer they are to me, the more of a chance they have to do so." He leaned closer to Dipper and chuckled. "Really he was closing in on you already, so I had to lead him off your trail. It won't be fun when there's a shadow in your head."

"When? You say that like it's going to happen. And why won't it be fun?" He moved back a little, trying to separate from Bill as much as he could.

Bill responded by inching closer, and was closer than he had been before Dipper moved back. "It might happen Pine Tree. Just be prepared, because they look like shadows now, but when it's in your head, you'll see what scares you the most."

Dipper thought for a moment about what would scare him the most, but after a few violent images crossed his mind, he shivered and shook them from his mind. "Let's just get them before that happens."

Bill seemed to ignore him, and inched closer even still.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Dipper inched back, but came to the footrest of the bed. "I told you no more of this crap!"

Bill pushed him down onto the bed and straddled him. "I'm just checking your head to make sure one isn't already in there Pine Tree. Hold still for a minute."

"Checking my head? Why do you need to be on top of me to do that?" Dipper could feel his heart pounding, and he tried to force himself up.

Bill pressed his hand down onto his shoulder and pinned him to the bed. "Just shut up and hold still Pine Tree. I just need to know if one found you or not." He leaned forward until his forehead touched Dipper's and he closed his eyes.

While Bill's breath evened out, Dipper felt like he was starting to hyperventilate.

"Calm down Pine Tree." Bill's voice was so smooth it almost did calm him down, but he refused to let Bill tease him like this.

"Can you get off me now? This is weird enough already, and you being shirtless isn't helping."

Bill sat up and crossed his arms. "Don't like the view Pine Tree? I thought you thought my 'tattoos' were cool."

"Not while they're pinning me to the bed."

Bill stared at him for a moment, a smirk glued to his face. "So you do like the view then?"

"You know what I mean! Just get off!"

"You don't seem to be trying very hard Pine Tree. I think you like it when I sit on you," he chuckled.

Dipper's face had to have been blood red at that point, and he wasn't sure how to respond, since Bill teased him with everything he said anyway. "I'm not trying because I know you're stronger than me Bill. Why are you teasing me anyway? I'm helping you and have been nice, and so far you've been nothing but a pain."

Bill's smirk faded and he bit his lip. "I've told you, watching you squirm is hilarious. But if you really feel that it's me trying to be mean, I'll stop." He leaned off of him, and let himself fall onto the bed.

Dipper sat up slowly and watched as Bill rolled off the bed. "What do you mean? Of course it's you trying to be mean. I don't think that, I know that."

"Do you? Because I don't do it to be rude." Bill fixed his yellow pajama bottoms and walked over to the desk covered in books. After looking at them for a moment, he unburied a thick-spined, orange, book and flipped through a few of the pages.

"Then why do you do it?" Dipper pushed himself off the bed and stood defensively, demanding an answer.

Bill sighed and closed the book. "I won't tell you again Pine Tree; I like to see you squirm. I find the face you make funny." He held the book out to Dipper and waved it back and forth tauntingly. "This book will teach you how to read the symbols and language on me. Wanna borrow it?"

Dipper glared at him. "Of course. But what do you want from me?"

Bill laughed and the menacing smirk only he could do spread on his face. "I found some more shadows, but we're going to need to fall asleep together again to get them quickly enough."

"So you want to give me a book so that I'll sleep with you?" The second the last word escaped his lips he cringed. He needed to learn to word things more carefully around Bill.

The room was silent for a moment, and the two stared at each other, each with tensed shoulders.

"Geez kid, I told you to at least take me to dinner first."

"I swear to god I will leave right now and never speak to you again, just give me the damn book, I'll do it."

His smirk turned into a smile and he lightly tossed the book to Dipper. "Be careful with it. We don't want just anybody learning this language."

Immediately he opened the book and began skimming through it, excited to learn more about the weird symbols.

"Fair warning Pine Tree, I tend to sleep in my boxers. I'm only wearing pants now because it got cold last night."

Dipper closed the book and sucked in a deep breath. "Fine, but we're not sharing the same blanket."


	7. Chapter 7

While waiting for Bill to get ready, Dipper started to read the book he had let him borrow, and was fascinated by everything it had to say. The language was an ancient one that demons commonly used when using magic, and Dipper was ecstatic to learn it.

An almost overwhelming scent of cherries filled Dipper's nose as soon as they got into the car, and he quickly realized that it was Bill that smelled so good.

"What's with the cherry thing?" he asked as he turned a corner.

"I saw that Star put a horrible amount of cherries on your breakfast the other day, so I figured you like them. If I'm going to have to be close to you I might as well make myself smell nice."

"Seriously?" Again he found himself shocked by the demon's honesty.

"I'm going to need to find a way to exhaust myself," he said ignoring Dipper. "Having slept all day this body will need to be a lot more tired than this if I'm going to fall asleep around the time you do."

"No forcing me to sleep this time," he growled. "We'll find something to do that'll put us both to sleep, but you are not going to use magic on me again."

"Fair enough, Pine Tree."

When they finally got to his house, Dipper opened the door and peaked inside to see if Mabel had gotten back yet.

"Mabel? Are you home?"

He heard movement from the kitchen, then Mabel poked her head out and smiled at him. "What's up bro-bro? I was just about to make dinner."

Dipper walked in and sheepishly revealed Bill standing behind him. "Make enough for three?"

Mabel rolled her eyes and disappeared back into the kitchen. "It's actually four, Jessica is here too."

Bill headed straight to Dipper's room to put the bag he had made on the bed, then made his way back out to find the three humans sitting at the table, talking about the mundane things that they did that day.

"Mabel had the greatest idea for the streamers! We're going to cover them with glitter and cut designs into them so that we can hang them everywhere and not look as plain." Jessica was a lot like Mabel in the way that they were always fascinated by artistically messy things.

Dipper watch as Bill sat at the table next to him, carefully watching Jessica as if she was a threat in some way.

He wondered for a moment about how well Bill got along with people when he wasn't around. From what he could tell, Bill wasn't a crowd favorite. Did he care if people liked him though? Dipper stared at Bill while he thought, not caring if he caught him looking. He obviously cared to make Dipper happy, but that was so that Dipper would help him. He was nice to Claire, flirtatious almost, but he was sure that was only to make Dipper happy as well.

"Take a picture Pine Tree, it'll last longer." Bill crossed his arms and suddenly his focus was on Dipper.

"Sorry, just thinking. I'll read now." Dipper opened the orange book, and flipped to the page where he had left off. "You don't mind if I ask you to translate some of this, do you?" He asked nicely, hoping that his kindness would get Bill to do something without him wanting something in return.

"Sure, just let me know which things you need help with." Bill leaned back in his chair and pulled his shirt up. "I'll tell you right now, this one," he pointed to one of the largest symbols on his chest and smiled "means life. Remember this one."

"Whoa, your parents let you get tattoos?" Jessica gawked at Bill's exposed chest and tried to make sense of the markings.

Both of the boys turned to her, almost looking as if they had forgotten that the others were in the room.

"My parents died in an accident three years ago," Bill said seriously.

Jessica paled and her lips trembled. "O-oh, sorry."

Dipper lightly kicked Bill under the table and glared at him. "Don't listen to him, he thinks it's funny to freak people out. Sorry."

A little color returned to her face and a soft smile found her lips. "It's fine. Your eyes are really cool by the way."

"Thanks Bell, yours are nice too."

Jessica visibly blushed. "Bell?"

Mabel cleared her throat as she finished pouring noodles into the boiling water on the stove. "He has this thing with nicknames. I'm Shooting Star and Dipper is Pine Tree."

"Why Bell though?" She leaned forward on the table and rested her head on her hand.

"Your voice. Reminds me of a bell. That's all." Bill sat forward and fixed his shirt so that it was fully covering his stomach again. "Hey Pine Tree, can we go hang out in your room until food is done?"

Dipper looked up from the book and gave him a questioning look. "I guess. But remember what we talked about before."

Bill rolled his eyes and stood up. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

As soon as Dipper's door clicked shut behind them, Bill laid down on the bed and groaned, sprawling out his long arms and legs. "This body gets too sore too easily."

"Why'd you want to come in here Bill?" Dipper knew he had to cut to the chase with him right away or else Bill would dance around the answer.

Bill's usual smug expression turned blank and he shrugged. "Bell's dating the guy that thinks my eyes are too creepy."

"Oh." Dipper didn't know what else to say. Maybe Bill did care about what people thought of him.

"I just don't want to deal with him thinking that I hung out with his girlfriend. The guy has some deeply seeded issues."

Dipper sat on the bed as far as he could from the demon and tapped at the book. "So, do you have any more questions you want answered? I can't think of any right now." That was a lie, he had a million questions for Bill, but he couldn't choose just one.

Bill shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "You seem awful far. Still scared I'm going to mess with you?" he chuckled.

"A little," he answered truthfully. "I know you, Bill. You wouldn't miss an opportunity to mess with me."

There was a long enough pause that Dipper had to look over and see if Bill was paying attention.

He was staring at the ceiling, biting at his cheek, and Dipper couldn't help but blurt out his next question. "What are you thinking about Bill?"

"I think I feel a fifth shadow close by. Can't tell though. This body is focusing too much on other things right now."

"Like what?"

Bill clicked his tongue. "Too much, that's all."

Dipper laid down on the bed horizontally, making sure not to touch Bill's feet, since any contact with the demon made him feel weird.

When Mabel called for them, Bill sat up and saw that Dipper was super close to falling asleep.

A smirk instinctively pulled at the corner of his mouth and he decided to mess with him.

The second call for them Dipper heard, and he sat up quickly, noticing Bill was gone. Had he left the room already? He got off the bed and before he could grab the doorknob, he felt a hand cover his mouth, and he fell back into the warm body behind him.

"Boo!" Bill laughed.

Dipper thrashed about and easily broke free from Bill's grasp. "Dude, I said no more!"

Bill paused, but his smile remained. "You said no more pinning you down. I just scared you, that's all."

"Either way! No more!"

Bill's smile turned into a stern pouty face and he crossed his arms. "I need something to bug you Pine Tree. I can't just leave you be all the time."

"Later Bill, I'm too hungry for this. We'll talk more after food." He tried his best to dismiss Bill's fit, and confidently walked out of the room and into the kitchen.

Seconds later, Bill appeared next to him with an almost somber look on his face. Was he upset that he had to spend more time with Jessica? Dipper watched him closely as he sat down in front of the pasta Mabel had made.

Once everyone sat down, Bill cleared his throat and smiled. "I'll say grace."

Mabel and Dipper gawked at him then gave each other questioning looks.

"I'm just kidding, geez don't take it so personally," he laughed.

Even for Bill that seemed a little strange, and Dipper could see on his face that he was carefully calculating everything he said. "Anyway," Dipper laughed nervously "thanks for dinner Mabel."

"No problem. I hope you guys like noodles, because these noodles are stuffed with more noodles!"

Bill looked as if he was enjoying the food immensely, and Dipper made sure to occasionally peak up from his book to make sure Bill was being a respectful dinner guest. To his surprise, Bill sat quietly and ate his noodles. Whenever Bill looked or acted like a normal person, Dipper couldn't help but notice that Bill made a rather nice looking human.

As the thought crossed his mind he mentally corrected himself. He must be popular with people who are attracted to blondes, he thought to himself.

Mabel and Jessica finished their food first, and before Mabel could even finish clearing the table of their two plates, Bill smiled and nodded to what was left of his noodles.

"Thanks Star. Another meal worth the time."

Mabel looked to Dipper for some sort of support, but he had his nose buried in his book. "Sure, no problem Bill." Her voice wavered a little, since he still made her a little nervous, but she made sure to smile to show that she appreciated the comment.

The two girls left the room, and Bill and Dipper sat quietly while they finished eating, which made Dipper start to wonder the motifs behind Bill giving him the book. He stopped reading and wondered if he should ask, but was a little afraid Bill would revoke the book if he questioned it too much.

"So, this book is cool so far."

"Yeah? I figured you'd like it Pine Tree." Bill poked at what was left of his noodles and looked distracted.

"Any particular reason you chose specifically this book to give to me?" He closed the book slowly and placed it on the table, watching as Bill looked up at him.

"What do you want me to say kid, that the book is secretly turning you mind to mush? I just thought it would be handy for you to learn. Saves time if you ever need to use it." Bill shrugged and leaned back into his chair, crossing his arms loosely over his chest.

They sat silently for a moment, since Dipper wasn't sure what to say. He looked to the sink and saw that the dishes needed to be done, and knew it was definitely his turn to do them. "I'm going to do the dishes. Do you want to wait in my room, or do you want to sit in here with me while I do them?"

"I need a way to kill energy, so I'll help you do them." Bill stood up and grabbed both their plates with one hand, then snapped his fingers with the other.

The sink turned on, and to Dipper's surprise, the dishes started to do themselves. It was like something out of a kids movie, the dishes floating as the sponge and soap worked away at them with no one touching anything.

"Well that's one way to help I guess," Dipper chuckled.

"Using magic makes me tired eventually. It makes it harder to focus on the shadow near by, but I won't be able to do anything about it anyway if I can't get to sleep."

Breaking his line of sight from the sink, Bill stepped in front of Dipper and smiled mischievously.

"Bill, what are you thinking?" Dipper said cautiously.

Bill stepped closer to Dipper without saying anything, then when he was close enough, he tapped Dipper's arm. "Tag. You're it Pine Tree." He quickly moved back out of Dipper's reach, but kept eye contact with him.

"Seriously? Tag?" Dipper leaned back in his chair and gave Bill an unamused look.

Bill put his hands behind his back then swayed back and forth. "Come on Pine Tree, stop being such a dud."

Was he serious? Dipper almost didn't know how to react, but figured he'd play along, since he needed to burn some energy as well.

Acting as if he was going to just walk past Bill to grab something off the counter, Dipper rolled his eyes and walked casually towards him. Just before he made it behind Bill, he quickly reached out his arm and tapped Bill's arm, then moved back. "You're it."

Bill's smile widened and he turned to face Dipper. "I'll have you know it's impossible to beat me, by the way."

"Why's that?" Dipper was standing in an offensive position, ready to dodge Bill if he moved at him.

Before he even noticed that he was gone, Bill was behind him, wrapping one arm around Dipper's waist and using the other to grab his chin. He pulled him close and whispered in his ear. "You're it." Again he disappeared, making Dipper nearly fall over, then he reappeared near the fridge.

"Teleportation isn't fair in tag!"

"Sure it is," he laughed. "You're just going to need to out smart me. Use your wits Pine Tree!"

Each time Dipper swung at him, the demon would just vanish and move to somewhere else in the kitchen.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" Bill appeared in front of the sink, and crossed his arms. "You're making it too easy!"

Dipper launched himself at Bill, moving a chair out of his way, and barely grabbed the back of Bill's shirt and pulled him to the ground. He quickly sat on top of him and grabbed his arms, pinning him to the ground.

"Ha! I win Bill!"

"What is going on in here!" Mabel marched into the kitchen with Jessica close behind.

Bill stopped the magic, which dropped one of the plates into the sink rather loudly, and Dipper was too stunned by the sudden noise to move.

The girls gawked at the scene of Dipper pinning Bill to the ground, and Dipper stammered as he tried to explain.

"I beat him at tag," he said with a red face. "I swear I was about to whale on him."

Jessica giggled, but Mabel gave him a concerned look. "Just stop making so much noise."

As soon as they left the room, Bill smiled up at Dipper and relaxed his body. "Yeesh I know I said treat me to dinner first, but can you at least wait until we get to bed?"

Dipper moved off of Bill as quickly as he could and almost fell when he stood up. "Oh shut up Bill. I still won."

Bill stood up and leaned against the counter. "Yeah, looks like you did." Bill snapped his fingers again, and that time the dishes appeared clean and stacked neatly by the side of the sink. "I didn't know where to put them away, sorry."

"That's fine. How come you didn't do that in the first place?" he asked as he started to put them away.

"I have energy to burn. The longer I use magic the quicker I get tired." He watched Dipper put the dishes away carefully, making sure to remember where each dish went.

When Dipper finished, they decided to go in his room and try to find a way to get Bill tired enough to go to bed.

"Didn't teleporting around the kitchen tire you out?" Dipper laid on his bed as close to the wall as he could, since he knew Bill would join him.

"A little. Teleporting is only tiring if I go long distances, and usually I can only go one way if it's a big enough leap." Bill did exactly what Dipper thought he would, and laid in the bed next to him.

Both of them stared at the ceiling in silence for a little while before Bill turned to lay on his side to face Dipper. "I got Blue's text by the way. Are you going to go to the dance with them?"

Dipper looked at him from the corner of his eye and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. Why?"

"I'm not going to go if you don't. I don't want to spend a night stuck in a group of humans who don't get me like you do."

Dipper laughed and turned on his side. "I don't even get you Bill."

"You know you do Pine Tree, we can read each other like books. You just overthink everything." Bill tapped Dipper's nose and smirked. "Sometimes things really are as simple as they seem Pine Tree."

His nose wrinkled at the touch and he scoffed. "If we do go," he said ignoring his last comment "you have to promise not to do anything embarrassing. No saying things to mess with people, no touching me inappropriately, and no magic."

Bill smirked and made himself more comfortable. "I have not inappropriately touched you once."

"Oh whatever Bill, you know you have. Just in the kitchen you grabbed me, and you've sat on me twice now."

"That's not inappropriate. I can show you what's inappropriate if you need a comparison."

"No!" he said quickly. "I would prefer you keep your hands to yourself."

They stared at each other for a moment, Bill keeping his wicked smirk on his lips and Dipper giving him a stern glare.

"I'm serious Bill."

Bill rolled his eyes as he rolled back onto his back. "Fine. I will not inappropriately touch you at the dance."

Dipper took in a short breath to respond, but was interrupted.

"But," Bill added, knowingly cutting Dipper off "you have to let me mess with you still."

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" Dipper groaned. "I would really prefer it if you didn't."

"Alright, fine. Then I'll do it if you let me use magic to put you to sleep. That magic tires me out pretty quickly and we can both fall asleep at about the same time."

Dipper groaned. "This isn't so you can do weird stuff in my sleep is it?"

Bill laughed and shook his head. "Just a way to tire myself out. I'm already feeling it a little, and using this magic will help put me out."

"Fine," he sighed. "Let me at least get into my pajamas." He carefully made his way off the bed, making sure not to touch Bill very much, then made sure Bill wasn't staring at him while he changed.

Surprisingly enough, Bill kept his eyes on the ceiling, ignoring Dipper trying to hurry and get some pajama bottoms on.

"I hate sleeping with a shirt on, so don't make things weird."

"I already told you I sleep in my boxers, so I won't make it weird if you don't."

Dipper laid down and made sure that Bill had his own blanket, then readied himself to be put to sleep. "Alright Bill, I'm ready."

Bill snapped his fingers and the last thing Dipper heard before falling asleep was Bill using a soft voice saying, "Good night Pine Tree."


	8. Chapter 8

By the time Jessica had gone home, it was already dark out, and Mabel decided that it was time to go to bed after she got herself a drink of water.

She didn't bother turning on the kitchen light, since she knew the kitchen well enough not to need it, and lazily got herself out a glass. As she set it on the counter, she heard a creaking sound from behind her, and when she spun around to see what it was, she was met with a pair of glowing, yellow, eyes.

"Sh, don't scream it's just me Star."

She could feel her heart pounding against her chest, and she watched carefully as the yellow eyes moved closer to her. "What do you want Bill?"

He laughed and leaned against the fridge. "You and Pine Tree are so alike. I know you're twins, but it's almost unnatural how similar you are."

She glared at him and stood her ground, making sure to show him that she wasn't scared. "Where's Dipper?"

"Pine Tree decided to hit the hay early." He moved away from the fridge and stepped a little closer. "You seem almost worried that I did something to him."

"Only because you stole his body then banged it up so badly that he had to go to the hospital. Not to mention you tricked us both so that you could try to end the world. And let's not forget the working with Gideon thing."

"Whoa, slow down Star. I know I've done a lot in the past, but that's all behind us now. You guys beat me, and now I'm back to try to help this place. I don't have many tricks up my sleeve."

"Many? Then there are some then?" She crossed her arms sternly and leaned against the counter, still trying to show Bill that she didn't see him as a threat.

"Well, none that are bad for you or Pine Tree. Though giving Pine Tree hell is always fun," he chuckled.

"You need to leave him alone Bill! You've done enough to him! You know he can't even handle loud noises because of you? He wakes up screaming sometimes, and he won't wear his hat anymore because someone called him Pine Tree once and he had a panic attack!" She tried not to shout, but became angrier and angrier as she remembered how much Bill had done to him.

"I know," he said softly. "But he's putting all of that aside to help other people. He's a good guy."

Mabel was caught off guard by the tone of his voice. It almost seemed like Bill felt sorry. She squeezed her arms and shook her head. "Why did you come in here Bill?"

"Let's make a deal Star." He held up his hand to silence another outburst of anger from her. "I'll give you full permission to make me leave, if, and only if, you see that I'm an actual threat to you or Pine Tree. In return, you not only have to not tell Pine Tree about this little chat, but you have to help convince him to let me stick around more."

"I already think it's bad that you're here though."

Bill shrugged. "Pine Tree already knows I'm actually helping people, if you trust him with that, then you should trust that I'm not doing any harm."

She looked down at her feet and bit at her cheek. "So let me get this straight, you want me to convince Dipper you're here to help, so long as I don't see you as a threat?"

"I would appreciate you letting me explain myself a little before you give the word though," he chuckled. "It may just be a misunderstanding. I wouldn't want this demon getting away with what he's doing just because I accidentally looked at one of you wrong."

A deep breathe forced its way into her chest as she realized that she had been holding her breath, and she let her arms fall to her side, defeated. There was no way she could pass up the chance to make Bill leave. "Fine."

Bill stepped closer and reached his hand out to her, a blue glow suddenly coming from it illuminating both of their faces. "It's a deal then, Shooting Star."

Dipper was becoming annoyed with Bill. It seemed like he had been waiting forever for him to show up in the Mindscape, and he was getting tired of waiting for him.

Just as he was getting ready to lose his cool, Bill suddenly appeared next to him.

"Miss me Pine Tree? Sorry it took longer than I thought to fall asleep."

"Whatever Bill, let's just get this over with."

The doors appeared, and Bill hurriedly made his way to a seemingly random one with Dipper following close behind.

They stepped into a field, and for a moment Dipper couldn't tell if it really was the Mindscape. He could feel the grass and dirt giving way to his weight, and the light breeze felt like it was actually brushing his skin.

"Ah, this person is aware that they're dreaming, but hasn't woken up because of it." Bill pointed out into the field to where a guy was walking slowly, enjoying the dream.

Dipper faintly recognized the guy, but shrugged it off. "So no shadow then?"

"It must have moved on when it realized he wouldn't be as afraid of it," he groaned. "Next one then."

Dipper followed as Bill lead him to another door, one that lead to his school. It was empty of people, and all of the lights were off.

"You're getting to see all sorts of stuff tonight Pine Tree," Bill laughed. "First a lucid dream and now one that was a nightmare before the shadow even got to it."

Whispers filled the hallway, and they seemed like they were moving, coming closer and closer.

Dipper felt a little scared, not sure what it would be like being in someone else's nightmare, and he couldn't help but inch closer to Bill.

"Don't wuss out on me now Pine Tree, nothing here is real. The only way it can hurt you is if you're afraid."

Dipper nodded and started to walk forward. "I'll keep an eye out for the shadow while you change."

Bill had already gotten quiet, and Dipper waited patiently for either a shadow to appear or for Bill to change.

After a few moments of silence, there was finally a low growling sound, and it was coming from behind Bill.

Dipper spun around quickly to see that there were two shadows, both inches away from Bill, who was clearly unaware of them.

"Watch out!" Dipper lunged forward, and barely made it to them before they could swing at Bill.

The shadows both made horrible noises, and Dipper felt his insides shake. Even though they weren't real, he was starting to question how much they could actually do to him, even if he wasn't afraid.

He thought of himself having super strength, and pushed both of them back, giving Bill room to change.

It felt like forever of Dipper pushing them back, over and over before Bill finally changed, but as soon as he did, he quickly slashed through them, nearly clipping Dipper as he did.

"Dude!" Dipper yelped as he pushed himself back.

"Then stay out of the way Pine Tree," he mumbled. "This was a set up. Two shadows don't just show up in the same place for no reason. This was a classmate's dream too, so we may have to try to drive them off even further." Bill was clearly frustrated, even through his demonic features Dipper could see that he was in distress. "I thought I had done this already."

"Well, shouldn't we focus on killing more of them then? Especially the ones that are close?"

Bill nodded. "Alright, one more for tonight then. I'll find the closest one."

Dipper blinked, and suddenly they were at the doors again, Bill wasting no time to get to the next door.

"You seem to want to get things done a lot faster after you change, why's that?" Dipper asked as they walked through the door.

"I have to move fast because I can only change once a night and I can't stay in this form for very long right now."

As they walked, Bill accidentally got close enough to Dipper that their arms touched, and it sent chills through him. He was still a little afraid of Bill when he was like that, and was actually relieved to hear that he couldn't stay like that for very long, since his human form was much easier to look at.

Dipper finally snapped out of his thoughts about Bill, and noticed that they were at his house.

"What the hell? Why are we here? Did we wake up?"

"This is the dream Bell is having. A shadow must've picked up on her when we were all together earlier."

"We're going to need to be careful not to let her see you then. I can't imagine how Mabel would feel if we scared her best friend that badly." Dipper listened for any noises, his ears picking up a soft voice coming from Mabel's room. He walked slowly, making sure to be ahead of Bill so that he could draw the shadow away from Jessica.

He opened Mabel's door slowly, and saw that the shadow had both Jessica, and Jessica's dream version of Mabel pinned to the bed, which instantly made Dipper ready to fight it. Dream version or not, Mabel was in trouble, and nothing was going to stop him from protecting her.

"Hey, freak, come and get me!"

The shadow moved away from them and immediately chased Dipper into the hall, where Bill was waiting.

He caught the shadows arm with one hand, then sliced into it with his other, making it disappear like the others.

"What happens to them anyway? They just kind of just vanish, they don't really die," Dipper asked as they appeared back at the doors.

"They're energy kid. Energy can't be destroyed, just changed. I thought you paid attention in school," he laughed. His normal features were slowly returning, and it made Dipper feel more relaxed.

"So you change it then? To what?" Dipper leaned against a door and crossed his arms, hoping to wake up soon.

Bill leaned on another door but didn't answer.

"Your silence makes me worry Bill, answer the question."

"I absorb it. I use it to make myself more powerful so that I can fight them. Hopefully by time I face him, I will have stored up enough to actually stand a chance against him."

Dipper felt anger build up in his chest and he clenched his fists. "How do I know you're telling the truth Bill? You didn't tell me that I was helping you become more powerful. Had you said that I wouldn't have helped you!"

Bill rolled his eyes and was clearly annoyed. "Pine Tree, I don't always remember to tell you everything. Sometimes I forget stuff until you ask."

"This is kind of a big part Bill!"

Knowing that Dipper was afraid of his demon form, he walked over to him and grabbed his collar. "I've been powerful enough to end everything since I got here, if I haven't done it by now, why would I do it at all?"

Dipper swallowed the lump in his throat and couldn't hide that he was afraid, and had no answer for him.

"Stop freaking out every two seconds. If we're going to do this we have to work together, whether you like it or not."

Before he could respond, Dipper suddenly felt warmth by his face, and smelled cherries. At first, he thought Mabel might be making something cherry scented, but as he slowly opened his eyes, he found that he had his face buried in Bill's chest, Bill's arms wrapped around him, under the same blanket. Bill seemed to still be asleep, and Dipper began to panic. Though he really didn't want to get up since he was super comfortable and warm, he also didn't want Bill to wake up and tease him for the rest of his life.

Bill moved a little, almost as if he was trying to wake himself up, and Dipper decided it was time to move, regardless of how much he seemed to enjoy it, which made him sick to his stomach.

As he stood up, he realized it might be time for a quick shower, since he seemed to be a little sweaty from the unwanted cuddling. That and his body decided to wake up with a very unwanted bump in his pajama pants.

He grabbed a towel and rushed to the bathroom, hoping Mabel wasn't in there. Luckily she wasn't, and as soon as the door locked, he undressed and didn't even wait for the water to warm up before hopping in the shower.

The water warmed up rather slowly, which wasn't too bad, but Dipper just wanted to wash off quickly and get out so that he could pretend none of it never happened.

When he finally made it back into his room, he saw that Bill had already gotten up and went into the kitchen, which he was thankful for, since he wouldn't have to be naked in front of him.

When Mabel heard the shower turn off, she accidentally let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't used to being alone with Bill, and she had been seemingly all morning. She had tried to be as polite as she could, not wanting to get into a fight, knowing that Bill had a better way with words than she did.

"What, still uncomfortable? You have nothing to worry about Star. I thought we talked about this." His words sounded harsh, but his tone of voice suggested otherwise.

"Can you blame me?" she asked as she set the plates of food down.

"I suppose not," he laughed. They were both quiet for a moment, then Bill cleared his throat. "You really are nice for being so polite to me though Star. Thank you."

Unsure of how to respond, she just nodded and looked down at her plate. She wasn't sure to be mad or happy that he was trying to make amends. How dare he, after all he had done, but at the same time, at least he was trying to make good.

Dipper emerged from the hallway and flicked his hair around, getting the last bits of water out of it. "Thanks Mabel, I'm starving." He tried his best to keep a straight face and act normal, but he couldn't find it in himself to look at Bill.

"So, Pine Tree, why the shower? You didn't seem to need one." Bill sipped on his drink of orange juice that Mabel had given him, but kept his eyes on Dipper.

Dipper was sure he noticeably blushed, but kept his head down and shrugged. "I just felt like it," his voice cracked.

"Yeah, being that warm in the morning does tend to make people sweat." Bill set down his cup and couldn't help but smirk at him.

"You were awake?" Dipper was surprised any sound came out, since his face had paled and he was sure he had died in that moment.

His smirk turned into a smile and he took a bite of his food. "I'm the one that woke us up."

Dipper nearly smashed his head into his plate. Had Bill noticed the main reason he took a shower? If so, why wasn't he torturing him more in front of Mabel?

"What, were you two all mashed together again? Darn I should've had my camera!"

"Oh god," Dipper put his face into his hands shook his head. "I would've pulled the no questions asked password to delete it," he said seriously.

Mabel's smile turned into a questioning look and shrugged. "Well, I'll just save the one that I have then."

Dipper barely touched his food, and sat in shock until the others were done. Bill didn't seem to be too keen on making fun of him that morning, and it made Dipper start to wonder why. Was Bill embarrassed too? Did he not want to mention Dipper's unfortunate reason-for-shower since he had probably had a reason to shower as well?

They piled into the car, and Dipper had to take a few deep breaths before he even started the car. Driving while that distracted was not safe.

"Come on bro-bro, we're going to be late!" Mabel nudged him lightly and gave him a stern look. "Everything okay?"

He nodded and started the car. "I'm fine."

Everyone at school was buzzing about the dance. Since it was only a day away, any last minute plans were being made, and kids were hanging out in larger groups to talk about everything they could before the bell rang.

"So, Dipper, are we still going to the dance?" Bill asked, almost sheepishly from the back seat as they parked.

"Y-yeah, at least I am so I can dance with Claire."

"Okay. Just making sure." Bill opened the door, but paused before getting out. "Meet me outside at lunch." He got out and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, walking quickly to his first class.

"Are you two okay?" Mabel asked as she closed her door.

"Yes, yeah, we're good. Just. It can be really weird waking up next to someone sometimes."

Mabel nodded. "Let me know if I can help in anyway. After tomorrow I'm free from all this dance junk and we can be the Mystery Twins again! We can find a way to defeat the shadows without Bill." She knew she was supposed to be making Bill seem better, but couldn't help comforting Dipper. She knew he wanted to do this without Bill. Didn't he?

Dipper shrugged and ran his hand through his still slightly wet hair. "I think we can hold off on that for now. We seem to be doing okay, and I don't want you to get wrapped up in it. I guess that demon is trying to find us now, and I don't want him coming for you too."

"Oh," she said softly. "Okay. Just let me know bro." She waved and made her way to class, leaving Dipper alone by the car.

He stared at the school and sighed. There was no way he could go in there without clearing his head first. He took a couple more deep breaths and thought about the possibility of sitting by Claire, then forced his legs to carry him into the building.

Come lunch time, he had almost forgotten that Bill had asked him to meet him outside, and he sat at the lunch table for a good ten minutes before remembering.

He walk out slowly, a little afraid that Bill was going to talk to him about that morning. As soon as he saw Bill though, he knew exactly why he had asked him to come out.

Jessica's boyfriend had him by the throat and was clearly very upset with him. He had obviously picked that spot too, so that he could get away with it, since no one ever went there.

"You think you can give my girlfriend a pet name? What even made you think you could be in the same room as her?"

Bill didn't answer, and just flinched each time he lifted his fist.

"You fucking freak!" He went to punch Bill, but stopped when he heard Dipper shout at him.

"What the fuck Josh, leave him alone!" He grabbed Josh's shoulder and yanked him away from Bill.

"Look at that, freaks standing up for freaks. Stay out of this Pines."

Dipper stood in between Josh and Bill and crossed his arms. "Trust me, I'm doing you a favor. Back. Off."

"What, that freak thinks he can fight?" He pushed Dipper aside as hard as he could, sending Dipper onto the ground. He went to grab Bill again, but as he did, Bill caught his arm and glared at him, his eyes seemingly glowing.

"You know Josh," Bill said in a calm voice "I was trying really hard not to hurt you. But then you had to push Pine Tree, and call us both names." He twisted his arm and watched with a small smile as Josh began to panic. "Man, I should've done this sooner. It seems I may have a bit of a sadistic side." He twisted harder and Josh cried out in pain that time.

"Bill! That's enough!" Dipper grabbed Bill's arm and gave him a stern look.

When Bill let go, he snapped his fingers and Josh suddenly seemed dazed and lost. "Where the hell am I?" He looked at Bill and Dipper with a confused face. "I'm going to assume you two were just passing by." He walked off, looking as if he had just woken up in a foreign place.

"What did you do to him?" Dipper crossed his arms, hoping to look a little menacing so that he would get a straight answer.

"I made him think yellow was a normal eye color, and erased all of his memories of fighting with me."

"Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

Bill shrugged. "I didn't think you'd appreciate me using that kind of magic on people. I figured you'd think it was okay this time because it was getting a little out of hand and needed to be dealt with."

"I guess you're not wrong. What was that about anyway? You kinda seemed like you lost control a bit for a second there."

"Well," he sighed "absorbing all of this magic can cloud my head a little. It won't happen again unless someone else decides to pick a fight with me."

Dipper nodded slowly. "Alright. Just let me know if someone does try to so I can step in before you kill anybody. You were right when you said that I wouldn't help you if you started killing people."

"Alright, I'll let you know Pine Tree."

They headed back inside, and sat quietly for the rest of lunch, Dipper deep in thought about how Bill had been acting.

He seemed like he was trying his best to be nice, while still clearly being himself, but Dipper couldn't help question every little thing, now that he knew that Bill hadn't told him everything. What else could he be hiding? Was he leading Dipper on and just playing nice until he got what he wanted?

"Pine Tree, you in there?" Bill was waving his hand in front of Dipper's face and looked almost worried. "The bell rang, we're going to be late."

"Huh? Oh sorry, I spaced out."

"Clearly," Bill chuckled. "Anyway let's get going spacecase."

When Dipper saw that the desks were in threes, he couldn't help but smile. Since Bill had shown up he hadn't had much time to do normal stuff, like talk to Claire about the dance, and if they could maybe hang out afterwards. Of course, he wasn't much of a smooth talker, so it wasn't like he could just ask her that. Even thinking about it made him a little nervous.

"Hey guys, so what's the word on the dance? I know you said you were gonna go, but did you want to pre-game at Mandy's house before?" Claire sat down at her usual desk and leaned forward excitedly on both of her elbows.

Bill looked to Dipper, since he had stated that he had no desire to hang out with them without him, and both waited for his answer.

"Well. . ." he trailed off, trying to think if that was a good idea or not. Would Bill drink? If he did how would it make him act? Would he expose himself as a demon to the others? "I guess, but I have to drive, so I won't drink anything."

"Of course! What about you Bill?" She turned her head to him, and now Bill had all eyes on him.

"If Pine Tree is going, I'll go." Bill smiled at Dipper, but kept a devilish look in his eye.

"Sweet! Seven o'clock on the dot, be at Mandy's! We're going to make this dance one to remember!"


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Alright, here's another one. Sorry for the late author's note, but I figured that now that there's a few of you reading I'd start kinda talking to you. Reviews would be awesome, so I know where I can improve and what you guys would like to see. This has kind of turned into my main writing project, so I like to think I'll be putting a lot more effort into it. Thanks for reading! 3**

Dipper refused to let Bill stay the night again, after the morning he suffered through, and as he expected, Bill whined about it.

"At least drive me home Pine Tree? I don't feel like teleporting, and Star doesn't need a ride home today."

Dipper huffed and rolled his eyes as he opened the driver's door. "Fine."

Bill plopped himself into the seat and made himself comfortable as Dipper drove away from the school. "Wanna play questions?"

"Play questions? You mean the question for a question thing?"

"Yeah. I have some questions for you, Pine Tree," he smirked.

Dipper's chest became heavy at the thought of discussing that morning. "What about?" he asked in a shaky voice.

Bill turned in his seat and faced Dipper, but kept his gaze on the road. "What happens to my body when I drink? Like I know I get drunk, but how does it feel?"

"Well, I've only been drunk once, and I puked my brains out because I had too much." He was hoping saying that would discourage Bill from drinking, and thought he should push the matter even further. "It makes you feel dizzy, and lightheaded, and since it will be your first time in this body, you'll likely throw up."

Bill nodded then gestured at him to ask a question. "Ask away Pine Tree."

A million questions swam to the front of his mind, and he had to think for a moment before he picked one. "When you do face the other demon, what happens if you aren't strong enough?"

He turned in his seat and Dipper could see that he had made Bill uncomfortable. "I don't know," he said softly. "Let's just get as many as we can so that I can beat him into the next century."

It was silent for a moment before Dipper cleared his throat and said, "your turn."

The demon perked up a bit and smiled. "You get that weird feeling when you look at Blue, don't you?"

Dipper's face turned red almost instantly, and he nearly swerved the car. "W-well, she's really pretty, why wouldn't I?"

Bill laughed and shook his head. "You humans and your feelings. Why don't you just tell her that? What's the point of having these mating urges if you don't act on them?"

"That's not how it works! We have to like each other too. I'm not even sure if she likes me back, let alone wants to do that with me. I'm not even sure I want to do that with her, I just want to dance with her." He was telling the truth; the thought of all of that made him beyond nervous and he was hoping Bill would leave him alone about it.

"Seems like a waste of time to me. If your body tells you to do something, and the other person agrees, then do it."

Dipper gripped the steering wheel as they pulled up to Bill's place, evening out his breathing, since his nerves had gotten the better of him. "Well of course it has to be consensual, but you still don't just go up to someone and ask that. At least, not at our age, I don't think," he laughed nervously.

He shrugged and opened the car door, letting it hang open for a moment. "Well, I guess I'll see you in the Mindscape. I'll teleport to your house at six so I can be sure that we're both ready."

Dipper drove home slowly, being careful not to let his thoughts distract him from driving. He was still worried that Bill was going to pull something at the dance, but felt a little better about the drinking thing. He was pretty sure he had scared Bill away from drinking, or at least from having enough to actually get himself drunk.

As he pulled into the driveway, he saw that the lights in the house were still off, and figured that Mabel hadn't made it home yet. She was likely still at the school, making sure the gym was perfect for the dance.

He laid in his bed and read the book Bill had given him until he drifted to sleep. The last thing he remembered was fighting hard not to drift off, since he only had a few pages left to study.

His eyes opened to his ceiling, the sun peeking in through his window. Had he not gone into the Mindscape? He sat up quickly, looking around the room for any sign that he was dreaming. There hadn't been one night since Bill stole his body that he didn't enter the Mindscape. This had to be a dream.

"Morning Dipping Sauce! I hope you like pancakes and smiley sausages!" Mabel sang. She looked real enough. The food smelled real enough.

If it were his dream Mabel though, there would be things that would seem off about her. The two of them usually had pretty keen senses when it came to each other, so he figured he'd use his twin sense to see if it was really her.

"How goes the dance stuff?" He sat down in front of a plate of food, and poked at it.

Mabel sat in a chair and sighed. "Good. But that's the problem. I'm exhausted. No sleep for this girl!" she laughed.

Dipper could feel his twin's lack of energy, and could see in her face that even though it was a labor of love, Mabel was ready for the dance to be over. His eyes widened and he dropped his fork on the plate, startling Mabel from her relaxed position.

"What's wrong?" She leaned onto the table and ignored that her hair almost fell into her plate of food.

"I-I didn't dream last night. I didn't go into the Mindscape. I'm awake right now." He had no idea why, but he began to panic. Something in his chest felt wrong, and it was making it hard to breath.

Mabel rushed over to him and began rubbing his back, making sure he knew that she was there. "It's okay Dipper, I'm sure there's a reason behind it. Maybe Bill knows." She was used to comforting him when he would begin to panic, since he tended to have panic attacks after that summer. She herself found that she didn't suffer from them like he did, so she took it upon herself to learn what to do when he panicked.

"Mabel why didn't I dream, is something wrong?" When he panicked, he became a bit irrational, unable to think clearly about what he was being told. "What if that thing found me and is messing with my head? What if it gets to you?"

Mabel shushed him and continued to rub his back, making sure that he kept eye contact with her. "Dipper, tonight we're going to go to the dance, and you're going to have fun with Claire remember? And we have Bill here now, he knows how to get rid of the demons, he can help you. Maybe it was just because you were exhausted. You did stay up late reading you know. How is your book anyway?" She made sure to keep her voice smooth and calming, matching the rhythm of her hand that was rubbing his back.

His breathing slowed and he nodded. "It's cool. I've learned a lot," he breathed.

"Good, now don't you want to eat some breakfast? It's a big day today! I worked hard on this dance, and we're all going to have fun!" She moved back to her chair, making sure not to move too quickly away from him.

He took a deep breath through his mouth then let it out slowly through his nose. "Thank you Mabel."

"I'm here for you Dipper. There's nothing we can't do when we work together, even if one of us needs a little extra help along the way."

After they finished eating, Mabel disappeared into her room, making sure she was perfect from head to toe for the dance, curling her hair, painting her nails, and applying make up carefully to where she felt it was needed.

Dipper however, decided to finish his book, then write a few notes on the symbols and words he found most interesting. By the time he had finished filling up two pages, he looked at his phone and realized that it was already almost six, and that Bill would be there any minute.

Scrambling to get his semi formal clothes on before Bill showed up, he threw on the first "nice" clothes he could find. A simple black button up shirt with its sleeves rolled up, and black dress pants were the first things he managed to pull on, and when he finished fixing his hair, he heard Mabel yell for him from the other room.

"What's up?" he asked, fixing one of his sleeves.

Mabel was in a dress she had made herself, a sweetheart neckline bedazzled with rainbow gems all the way down to the skirt, which was made with pink and purple tulle. Her hair was curled and had small, colorful, bows placed randomly throughout. "You look plain," she giggled.

"And of course you look colorful and amazing. Some twins we are," he chuckled.

Mabel clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I'll be right back." She slipped down the hallway into their parents room, only being gone for a second before coming back out with her hands behind her back. "I think this will be perfect!" She revealed a brightly colored yellow tie, and began to tie it on him.

"You chose this color on purpose," he growled, but let her tie it.

"Of course I did! It'll be fun having you two match." She finished straightening the tie then pulled her phone from her breast. "If we don't take a few pictures, mom will freak. Say cheese!"

A bright flash covered the room, then she turned the phone to look at the picture. In the back, Bill was making a funny face at the camera, and the two spun around to see him smirking.

"Did it turn out?" he laughed. He was wearing a yellow dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up like Dippers, with a black vest over it and a black bow-tie to match. The vest had small chains on the sides, matching the chain belt he had holding his black pants to his thin frame.

Dipper groaned. They did match. "It looks fine. The teleportation thing is starting to get a little annoying," he laughed.

Bill rolled his eyes, but held his hands out, presenting his outfit to the twins. "Did I do it right? I figured this was going to be alright. I wasn't expecting Pine Tree to match though."

Mabel giggled and adjusted Bill's bow-tie. "We all look fantastic! One more pic for the road!" The three posed for the picture, all smooshing in close so that the camera could get all three of their faces. "I'll send you both the pictures, but for now I have to go! Gotta go make sure everything's running smoothly!"

As soon as the boys were left alone, Bill crossed his arms and blocked Dipper's path from leaving the hallway.

"Where were you last night? Did you stay up all night?"

Dipper took a deep breath, remembering to stay calm, and shrugged. "I didn't go into the Mindscape. I have no idea why."

Bill stepped closer to him, looking him in the eye. "Can I check your head again?"

"Do you actually think you'll figure out what's wrong if you do?"

Bill nodded and stepped even closer, closing his eyes as he pressed his forehead to Dipper's.

Dipper relaxed into it, but had to keep reminding himself that it was just to figure out what was wrong, and that he didn't need to freak out.

"Your body was too exhausted. You slept too deeply to enter the Mindscape. All this time, and now you're too tired? Did you even do anything yesterday?" Bill joked.

"I've been extremely stressed the passed few days," he grumbled. "For some reason dealing with demons puts a toll on me," he said sarcastically.

Bill raised his hands in defense and stepped back from him. "Well, at least you got a good night's sleep for once. No more slacking though, the more we kill off, the better."

"Let's just get to Mandy's house."

The drive there seemed too quick for Dipper, since he wanted anything but Bill being drunk in a group of his friends.

"Alright, Pines and Anderson are here!" Claire announced the boys to the group of people, who were all sitting around a couch, passing a bottle of alcohol around. "Care to partake, Bill?"

Bill smiled and nodded. "Bring on the dizzy!" He accepted the bottle, and took several, large gulps of the liquid, before realizing that it was a bad idea. He cringed at the taste and coughed as he handed the bottle back to the person who had handed it to him.

"Bill! That was stupid!" Dipper nudged his arm and glared at him.

"More like awesome! He took that like a champ!" One of the girls sitting on the couch was smiling at them and nodded. "I bet he could handle a few shots of the good stuff! Who's down for shots?!" She stood up and nearly skipped to the kitchen, a few people, including Bill, following her.

Dipper groaned and followed Bill closely, annoyed that he hadn't deterred Bill from drinking at all.

The majority of the group each did a shot, Bill imitating the teens around him when they all cringed at the taste.

"What are you doing?" Dipper asked as he pulled Bill aside.

"Relax Pine Tree, this stuff probably won't do anything for me, so I might as well earn some 'cool points' while we're here. You do want me to get along with other humans, right?"

Dipper pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "Look, if this does do something to you, now would be the time to quit while you're ahead. It might take a minute to kick in, but you've have enough to give you a buzz since this is your first time. Let's leave it at a buzz. I don't need a drunk rampaging demon."

"Who says I'd go on a rampage?" Bill crossed his arms and leaned on the wall, giving Dipper an offended look.

"If you do something stupid and someone picks a fight because of it, what happens then? I'm not getting in the middle of a bunch of drunks, Bill."

He looked away and let his arms fall to his side. "Fine, fine. I'll stop. Only because I already do feel a little light headed."

Dipper rolled his eyes and nodded to the group. "Just don't expose yourself, okay? I don't know if I could keep everyone from trying to exorcise you."

"I hear ya' Pine Tree."

Once the teens had their fill of alcohol, they all piled into either Dipper's car or the SUV of the other DD.

Bill made sure to claim his seat in the passenger side of Dipper's car, not wanting to get sandwiched in between people he didn't know, and sat quietly for most of the ride.

Dipper almost felt bad that Bill wasn't having a good time, but he wasn't sure what he could do to make it better. He turned on the radio to an upbeat song, hoping to liven things up in his car. The teens in the back loved it, and started to sing and dance, but Bill seemed like he was still in a mood.

Deafening music and blinding lights made the school appear almost fun, and as the teens piled out of the cars, Bill seemed to lighten up a bit.

"You feeling alright?" Dipper nudged Bill's arm and nodded to the school. "You know you're allowed to have fun right? Just not the, kill everyone and destroy stuff fun," he chuckled.

"Get off it Pine Tree, I'm not going to kill anyone." Bill playfully nudged him back then walked behind the group they came with into the school.

Mostly every teen in the gym was dancing, enjoying the playlist Mabel had made just for the dance.

Even though Dipper was sure Bill wouldn't dance, Bill did dance, and was dancing quite well, making a few of the drunken teens hoot at him.

Dipper stood back and watched, laughing each time someone bumped into someone else, or nearly tripped onto one another.

Seeing Bill getting along with everyone gave him mixed feelings though. What if Bill really was trying something sneaky? Was he going to befriend people and use them too? If not, then would making friends make him want to stay after they dealt with the other demon? What would happen to Bill if he stayed in the human body for a long time?

"Whoa, Dipdop, loosen up!" Mabel grabbed Dipper's tense shoulders and shook him lightly. She could see that he was deep in thought, and was ignoring the world around him. "Dance with Claire!" She shoved him into the group, making him nearly smash into Claire, and he laughed nervously as he stepped back from her.

Claire grabbed his arm and yanked him closer, and the group came closer to them, forcing Dipper to dance and have fun with them.

Since he wasn't drunk though, he didn't seem to be finding everything quite as funny as everyone else, so after a short while of dancing, he separated from the group and found Mabel again, who was dancing with Jessica and a few other friends, who all had equally crazy dresses.

"How's everything going? Need me to do anything?"

Mabel rolled her eyes. Dipper never was one for large groups, and he didn't know how to let loose like she did. "Not having fun?"

"No, no, I am. Just. . . not as much as everyone else I guess," he laughed.

"You left Bill alone with all those people?"

"Yeah, he seems to be having fun. I didn't think he liked music."

Mabel stopped moving to the song and tapped her chin as she got a thoughtful look on her face. "Doesn't Bill hate synthesized music? Like I think I remember it making him physically react to it. 'Cause up next is totally one of my favorite synth songs."

Dipper shrugged. "I'll go ask him if he cares I guess. Wouldn't want him freaking out in a large group."

At first Bill didn't acknowledge Dipper, but when Dipper yanked his arm he gave him a dirty look. "I thought you wanted me to have fun Pine Tree."

"I do, but Mabel told me the next song was a synthesized song. Don't you hate that music?"

Bill shrugged with one shoulder and nodded. "It makes my head hurt." He paused for a moment then smirked. "Step out of the dance for a bit with me while it plays?"

Dipper was actually a little relieved Bill asked him to take a breather away from the group, and happily obliged.

They wandered the school until the music was just a loud murmur through the walls. Bill lead the way, and kept trying doors to see if any were unlocked.

"We can't go in the classrooms! They're all going to be locked any-" The sound of a doorknob clicking cut him off, and he stared at Bill, who had a large grin on his face.

"C'mon Pine Tree, it's the biology room. It'll be kind of spooky hanging out by the human diagrams, don't you think?" Bill slipped into the room quickly, and Dipper followed, not wanting Bill to get into anything he shouldn't.

Bill danced around the room to the muffled music, moving through the rows of seats haphazardly, stumbling every so often.

Dipper leaned on one of the desks, and laughed each time Bill nearly smashed his face on a desk.

"Shut up and come here Pine Tree. Loosen up and dance with me!" Bill grabbed Dipper's wrists and pulled him away from the desk, pulling him around the room.

He tried to pull away in protest, and squirmed even more when Bill wrapped his arm around his waist. "Bill! You promised there wouldn't be any of this at the dance!"

Bill twisted Dipper around and smiled. "First of all, this right here isn't inappropriate," he twisted him around again, then dipped him, holding him by his waist and his wrist. "and we're not technically at the dance, Pine Tree."

"This is to inappropriate!" Dipper let himself go limp, making Bill hold up all of his weight so that he might let him go, but Bill didn't seem to mind.

"This is inappropriate," he said as he pulled Dipper up.

A sudden heat was on Dipper's face, as Bill's lips mashed into his, Bill tugging at his arm to make Dipper as close as possible.

His lungs felt like they caught on fire and his stomach felt like it was filled with feathers. He wasn't even sure how to react, so he just stiffened and waited until it was over.

When Bill let go of him, he scrambled back and looked away from Bill. His face was a deep red, and he couldn't tell if he wanted to be mad or embarrassed. "What the hell was that?"

Bill shrugged and continued to dance around the room. "I told you it was a waste of time not to listen to your body. My body said to do that, so I did."

It was obvious that Bill was drunk, but Dipper wasn't sure what to do from there. Should he try to pretend it never happened and hope that Bill would forget about it? What would happen if Bill went around telling everyone that they kissed?

He shook his head and took a deep breath. "Let's get back to the dance, please. And don't don't just go around doing what your body says; it can get you into trouble really fast."

"Sure, sure." Bill danced out of the room, and made his way back to the gym, leaving Dipper behind.

He walked back slowly, not wanting to face the drunk Bill, since he seemed to be a little too friendly.

"There you are! I've been trying to find you!" Mabel grabbed Dipper by his arm and pointed up to the projector on the catwalks above the gym floor. It pointed at the largest empty wall in the room, and was showcasing images Mabel had taken of people around the school, having fun or just posing for the camera.

"Why, what's up?" He tried his best to act normal, and it was kind of working since he was still in shock from what had happened.

"That thing is going to show all of the pictures in my gallery from the last month. I may or may not have forgotten to take a certain photo off. . ." She looked down at the ground and scratched the back of her head.

"Mabel! People can't see that! Do you have any idea what people would say if they saw that?!" He ran his hands through his hair and took several deep breaths.

Mabel put her hands up and shushed him. "It's at the very end of the photo reel. I moved it back there so I could order all of the other pictures before deleting it, but I'm pretty sure I forgot to. Anyway, if you can sneak up there and stop it before it ends, no one will see it."

"Why can't you do it?" Dipper growled.

"Well, I need to stay down here and start wrapping up the dance. I can't just disappear for twenty minutes to sneak up there and shut it off. By the way, to make it look like it shut off on its own, you might want to wait until the picture just before yours. It has all of the writing on it and junk. It'll stay on the screen for about ten seconds before it flips to yours."

"Is there no remote shut off?" Dipper looked around the room to see how everything was set up, but the dim lights made it hard to tell where everything was.

"Not unless you've got the key to the IT room. We had it all set up pre-dance, and we didn't think we would need to get back in there, so no one took the key."

Dipper groaned and threw his hands up. "Fine, I'll go shut it off."

There suddenly seemed to be teachers everywhere, making it nearly impossible to sneak up to the catwalks. They had been closed off since the school had been remodeled, the gym having used to be where the stage was, and only certain staff was allowed to go up there.

Of course, kids would go up there anyway, even though it had totally been deemed not safe.

Dipper wasn't afraid though. He had been up there once or twice throughout his high school years, and it didn't seem dangerous to him.

After sneaking past the teachers, he slipped through the door that had the staircase leading to the ceiling. He stood by the projector for a little while, waiting for the last photo to show. It flipped through the photos slowly, almost painfully, but when Dipper saw the picture with the text all over it, he gave it about five seconds before he clasped his hands over the light and blocked the last image.

Mabel had forgotten to delete it, so had he not gone up there, everyone would have seen the unfortunate cuddle session.

As soon as the light from the projector died, Dipper relaxed and sighed.

"How strange," an unknown voice sang from behind him. "Cipher chose such a strange human. Worried over such petty things."

Dipper spun around to see who had said that, and saw that a guy dressed in a purple button up shirt with a black tie had followed him up. His hair color matched his shirt, and his eyes seemed like they were as black as his tie.

"Who are you?" Dipper figured since he knew Bill's real last name that he was either another demon or someone who knew that Bill was a demon.

The guy stepped closer and looked down at all of the kids who were still dancing to the dying down music. "I didn't think Cipher would be able to pull off getting a body. It was hard enough for me to do, I can't imagine someone as incompetent as he getting one so easily."

He was a demon. Dipper stood up straight and clenched his fists, hoping to look unafraid of the demon, even though he was terrified. "I'm not asking again, who are you?"

His eyes snapped to Dipper and he walked even closer to him, looking him up and down. "I see why he chose you though. You're a human that has the ability to use magic. Perfect for Mindscape travel. Blocks his own magical readings, hiding him from Baltzy," he chuckled. "Once I get Cipher out of the way, I'll keep you in the Mindscape with me so that I can use you as my shield."

Dipper gripped the railing, realizing that his way down from the catwalks was blocked. "I'm guessing Baltzy is the demon making the shadows, but who are you?"

He grabbed Dipper's collar with both hands and gave him a stern look. "I tell a human that they can use magic, and you're still worried about who I am?" He pulled Dipper closer and smiled in the way that Dipper thought only Bill could. "I suppose since you will be my pet that I will tell you my name. I am Clyde Grim. But you can call me Master."

Dipper shuddered and shook his head. "Clyde it is then."

Clyde rolled his eyes and released Dipper from his grasp. "Where is Cipher anyway? I thought I could destroy him in front of his pet and peers." He spun around and looked out into the sea of kids, who were all starting to clear out of the gym. "Perhaps I could just destroy his peers. That should bring him out."

Dipper grabbed his arm and tossed him back, nearly throwing him over the railing, then used the time to slipped past him and run down the stairs. He had to find Bill.

"Bill!" he yelled as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Clyde was in front of him suddenly, and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Pets do not disobey their masters." He yanked Dipper back and pushed him into the wall. "But I do enjoy that you're the perfect bait for Cipher. I'm sure he'll come running when I tell him that I have his meat-shield."

Mabel bouncing around in her colorful dress caught Dipper's eyes, and he could see that she was putting some bows into Bill's hair.

Clyde followed his gaze and stared at them for a moment before smirking. "Well, well, twins. Two magical humans in the same place. She's nowhere near as close as you are to using it, but either one of you will do I suppose. Which ever one screams less," he chuckled.

That was the last straw. He had threatened his classmates, Bill, and worst of all, he threatened Mabel. Dipper felt a coldness start to grow in his chest, and he could physically feel his anger trying to come out of him. He didn't realize he had even done it, but he had punched Clyde in the face, so hard that he could've sworn he heard a popping sound.

He stumbled back and laughed. "I see the twin is a weak spot. Perhaps it will entice you to use your magic."

Most of the kids had cleared out at that point, the only ones left being Mabel, Bill, Jessica and another girl that had helped with the dance, which was lucky since Clyde decided to walk over, black fire coming from his fists.

The lights snapped on and all of the doors slammed shut, making everyone's attention turn to Clyde.

"Cipher, you're looking terrible. How goes the human thing?" In the light, Clyde looked more like a demon than before. His features looked similar to when Bill changed in the Mindscape, but instead of horns, he had a tail.

Bill stepped in front of the girls, blocking them from Clyde's line of sight. "Grim, I see you're still terrible at choosing your form."

Clyde snapped his fingers and Dipper found himself next to the demon, chains around his wrists. "I found your pet Cipher. I have to admit, you found a nice one. It can use magic and everything! And it even comes in a set!"

Bill took a deep breath and crossed his arms. "Let me teleport the other humans out of here and wipe their minds. They have no part in this."

"Why, because you've gone soft? I thought you wanted all of the humans dead. Isn't that what you tried to do a few years ago?" Clyde yanked on Dipper's chain and pulled him closer. "I still can't believe you couldn't do it. They're really fragile." He tossed Dipper back, sending him into the wall with a loud thud.

"Dipper!" Mabel went to comfort him, but Bill grabbed her arm.

"Star, please, I promise I won't let him hurt Pine Tree, but I need you to stay back. I'm going to get you and your friends out of here, and I'm going to wipe their minds of this. Me and Dipper will come home tonight. I promise."

"Promise?" she sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes. She knew she had no choice but to leave them here, since there wasn't anything she could do to help anyway, but she still wasn't fully trusting of Bill.

"I promise Star. Remember, if not, you can send me away."

Mabel nodded, and Bill snapped his fingers sending the her and the others away.

Clyde tsked at him and used the chains to drag Dipper back over to him. "Softy, softy, softy. I bet you've got an even softer spot for your meat shield here."

Bill calmly stepped forward, keeping eye contact with Clyde. "Let him go Grim, and we'll settle this."

The demon snapped his fingers and Dipper found himself chained to the wall.

He figured he'd better try and let Bill handle the fighting, and took the time to think of ways to get rid of the other demon.

"How about winner gets the good meat sack, and loser gets the one that isn't as close to using her magic?"

"Don' talk about my sister like that you jerk!" Dipper snapped.

Bill put up his hand, and blue flames lite up his whole body. "How about winner gets to live, and loser has to die?"

Clyde smiled and let his flames grow higher, giving the gym an unholy blue and black glow. "Bring it on, Cipher."

 **AN: Like the new guy? There's going to be a lot more of this fic to come, so don't think he'll be the only new face to bother our heroes!**


	10. Chapter 10

Dipper watched as the two demons clawed at each other, each looking more like balls of light than anything since the power to the gym had cut out as soon as they both started fighting.

He wriggled his hands around, hoping that he could break out of the chains, but had no luck. Hadn't Clyde said that he could use magic? Dipper thought hard for a moment and wondered how he could use it to his advantage. He likely was no where near Bill's and Clyde's level, but even a tiny bit of magic would help him at that point.

The demons seemed to always snap their fingers when they used magic, so Dipper thought really hard about what he wanted, which was getting out of the chains, then snapped his fingers, hoping that it would work and that he wouldn't be standing there looking like an idiot.

To his surprise, the chains came undone, freeing his hands. Unfortunately though, Bill wasn't lying when he said that magic tired him out. Dipper felt sluggish, and his body wanted to drop right then and there, but he forced himself to stay upright and make his way to the gym door, careful not to be seen by Clyde.

To no one's surprise, the door was locked, and Dipper cursed under his breath. Did he dare try to use more magic to unlock it? What if it made him pass out?"

He looked back to the demons, and saw that they seemed to be at a draw.

"Well, Cipher, it seems you've taken some time to become a little stronger," Clyde panted.

Bill wiped his mouth, where a bit of blood was, and smiled. "What's a matter Grimmy, can't handle me? This is why you weren't invited to my party you know. You're weak. Always have been, always will be."

Clyde's flames grew even higher and he swung at Bill, but missed. Bill smashed his fist down into his back and Clyde fell with a loud cracking sound.

Everything went silent, and Dipper couldn't help but gawk. "Did you kill him?" he squeaked.

Bill turned to Dipper and gave him an odd look. "How did you get out of the chains?"

"Magic. But seriously though, he's not moving." Dipper inched closer to the demons, watching Clyde closely.

Bill nudged him with his foot and shrugged. "Nah, I couldn't find it in myself to off him. He's technically family. Even though they've all shunned me out, I'm still not going to just kill them. Even though I should. I can't believe he came in here and threatened us all like that."

Both demons looked normal again, and as Bill's magic faded, Dipper could see that he looked ready to pass out as well.

"I'll use the last bit of magic I can to bring he and I back to my place so I can question him. Can you make it home okay?" Bill picked Clyde up and threw him over his shoulder, almost as if he didn't weigh anything.

"Unlock this door and I'm golden."

As soon as Dipper turned off his car in the driveway, he saw the front door fly open, and a worried Mabel running out in her pajamas.

"Dipper!" She quickly opened the car door and brought him in for a tight hug, which brought his aching body to his attention.

"Not so tight!" He wriggled out of her grasp and groaned at his aching joints. The gym wall had done a number on his back.

"Where's Bill? Are you guys okay? Who was that?"

Dipper pushed her back and forced himself out of the car. "Can't we talk about this over tea or something?"

Mabel nodded and pulled him inside, sitting him down at the kitchen table. "Okay, I'll make tea, you talk. Where's Bill?"

Dipper relaxed into the chair and winced at the pain. "He took Clyde, the other demon, who I guess is related to him, back to his house. He won their little show down and decided not to kill him."

Mabel nodded slowly as she filled the kettle with water from the sink. "What did he mean by you being able to use magic?" As soon as the kettle was full, she plopped it on the oven and turned it on high, then sat as close as she could to Dipper.

"I guess we both can. Clyde said something about us both having the ability to use it, but that I was closer to figuring it out than you are."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you are. I don't get into all that magic junk like you do," she laughed.

"I used magic at the gym, to slip my chains. It felt really weird and made me really tired."

Mabel looked down at the table and chewed at her lip, deep in thought. "It doesn't hurt you, does it? I was really worried about you."

Dipper moved his shoulders around and cringed. "The whole slamming into the wall and being dragged around thing hurt, but the magic didn't."

"Well I hope Bill takes care of him. No one needs two demons gunking up their time. Did you get to dance with Claire?"

The kettle started to whistle, and Mabel jumped up and began to pour them both a mug of tea while she listened to Dipper's response.

"Not really. Bill and I left the room, and-" he stopped himself as he remembered what happened in the biology room.

"And what?" She set the mug down in front of him, and placed the sugar holder closer to her, since she knew she would use it more than he would.

"Well," his voice cracked "he was drunk and wanted to dance, so he made me dance with him."

"Yeah, I noticed he was acting a little weird. He asked where you were like twelve times and let me put bows in his hair." She blew on her mug several times, then started to add her usual, obscene amount of sugar to her tea.

Dipper nodded. "I don't know if I liked drunk Bill. He seemed to sober up when he needed to, but I'm not sure if I liked the rest of it."

Mabel snorted. "Dancing isn't so bad. Besides he was probably just making sure you were having fun, since you were being so dull."

"No, he made it weird. It wasn't just the dancing." Dipper looked down and played with the bag inside his mug, his face feeling hot from the steam and his embarrassment.

"Did he do something he shouldn't have?" Mabel stared at him sternly, hoping that she wouldn't have to tell Bill to go away, for good.

Dipper swirled the bag around, wondering if he could tell her what happened. They told each other everything, but when it came to romance of any kind, they were both a little shy to spill any details. "We danced for a minute, then. . . he pulled me way too close and. . . kissed me," he mumbled.

"What?" Mabel leaned in closer with wide eyes. "Did I just hear you correctly? He kissed you?" she shouted.

"Mabel! Hush!" he snapped. "But, yeah. He did."

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her pink tank-top. "Why?"

Dipper shrugged. "I have no idea. He just said something about how he thinks it's a waste of time not doing what your body wants, and after he did it, he just said that's what his body told him to do, so he did it." He took a sip of the still way too hot tea, and grimaced at the burn it gave him. "Could I get some ice please?"

Mabel obliged and got him a few ice cubes from the fridge, dropping them carefully into his mug. "It didn't make you, like, feel anything, did it? I mean towards Bill?"

"No! I mean, it's not like it was bad, but it was just weird. I don't know." He let his head fall onto his hand and blew on his tea some more.

Mabel laughed lightly and took a sip of her tea, but didn't seem to mind the heat like Dipper did. "It's okay if you liked it. You know I like both boys and girls, I wouldn't be surprised if you did too. Remember the whole, Pacifica thing?" She laughed and took another sip of her tea. "Anyway, just maybe pick someone to smooch other than the guy that tried to kill us just a few years ago."

Dipper sighed. "I don't know what it is Mabel. He used my body, told another demon to eat me, caused horrible amounts of damage to nearly the entire state of Oregon, and was just in general a horrible person. But now it's almost like we're best friends. People are dead because of him, and I've let him sleep in the same bed as me." He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Tell me how to feel Mabel," he joked.

She shrugged and took another sip of her tea. "Feel what comes Dipper. If for some reason Bill really isn't pulling anything, and is actually trying to help people, then you being nice with him won't be in vain. And, if he does have some evil plan, then you being nice with him was because you thought it was what was right, and you shouldn't feel bad about doing what you thought was right."

"Did you become a fortune cookie while I wasn't looking?" He sipped on his tea, the heat no longer too much to handle.

"Just get some sleep tonight, okay? Tomorrow's Sunday, so don't worry about waking up early." She chugged the rest of her tea, then ruffled his hair as she walked past him. "Let me know if you need me bro-bro."

After he finished his tea and got ready for bed, Dipper laid down and stared at the ceiling. Did he really want to go work with Bill after what had happened? What would Bill say about it while sober?

Eventually his racing thoughts mellowed, and he drifted off to sleep, finding that he wasn't by the trees anymore.

The floor was black, and everything else around him was white.

"Bill?" He carefully stepped forward, finding that with each step, the color of the floor and walls changed.

"No such luck pet. Bill may have me confined in your reality, but in here, I am still quite free." Clyde appeared behind him, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Getting to you was a matter of who fell asleep first, and it looks like I've won," he chuckled.

"Bill isn't going to just let you keep me you know." Dipper moved out from under the demon's arm and glared at him.

"I tried to bring you here the other night," he said ignoring Dipper "but I accidentally just trapped you in a blank space. My pet must've been so lonely." He snapped his fingers and a desk and chair appeared. Clyde pushed Dipper into the chair and slid it under the desk. "Listen pet," he purred as he sat on the other side of the desk. "Cipher is playing you for a fool. He just wants power. What makes you think that he won't just turn around and use the power he gets from Baltzy to destroy your world?" He leaned closer to Dipper, his purple trench coat sliding off one of his shoulders. "Why trust him?"

Dipper leaned back in the chair and shrugged. "He doesn't seem like he's lying. I mean, it's not like a fully trust him, but I know that the danger is real, and he seems to be helping."

The world around them shook, and Clyde rolled his eyes. "That'll be Cipher, trying to wake one of us up. Before we part ways, pet, hear me out. I will have a deal ready when we next meet, and I think it will please you. Just don't let dear Cipher make one too."

"Dipper!" Bill's voice shattered the world around him, and he opened his eyes to see Bill nudging him awake.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes, realizing that it was still dark out. "Dude, it's like two AM."

Bill sat on the bed and leaned back, using his arms as support. "'Dude,'" he mimicked "I was trying to get you away from Grim before he did something stupid."

Dipper let himself fall back onto the bed and sighed. "He just talks a lot."

Bill laughed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess it runs in the family."

The two looked away from each other and for a moment Dipper could swear he saw Bill look nervous. What was he thinking?

"So, it seems we have a lot to talk about, Pine Tree," Bill finally said.

Dipper brought his knees to his chest and looked at Bill. His eyes seemed to be glowing, but his features seemed softer than usual, as if he had purposefully toned it down a bit. "Yeah. Can we please start with Clyde?"

"Sure kid. I guess I'll start from the beginning." Bill laid down next to Dipper and sighed. "I won't give you my whole life story, but basically Clyde and I are, how you humans would figure, cousins. When he heard about my big plans, he got excited and wanted to join, but because of bad blood over something ages ago, I didn't invite him. He must've heard about Baltzy when I did, and found a body though the same means I did. It just took him longer because he's an idiot and butchers deals."

Dipper nodded, but made sure to keep his gaze away from Bill. "Okay, now the magic thing. How come you never mentioned that I could do that?"

Bill sat up and gave Dipper a dirty look. "Pine Tree, you know I do everything in a roundabout way. Didn't you get the hint with the magic book I gave you? Didn't you read the part that said only magical beings can use these symbols? And remember how I said that it would come in handy if you needed to use it? Geez I don't have to spell everything out for you, do I?" He almost seemed legitimately upset that Dipper hadn't caught on.

"Sorry." Though Dipper really did want to learn more, he was tired, and still felt weird being so close to Bill, so he kept his answers short.

"Listen," Bill yawned "I have a special pen that will let you draw the symbols on yourself. It was stupid to use magic without them, and if you want to continue doing it without hurting yourself, you need the symbols. They are, permanent though."

"So, like tattoos? My parents might kill me," he chuckled dryly.

Bill yawned again and shrugged. "Like I said, your choice. You really shouldn't use magic without them though. It could kill you," he said more seriously.

"Alright. I'll think about it."

They got silent again, both knowing the next thing there was to talk about. The thing Dipper was hoping to forget.

"So, you less drunk now?" Dipper laughed nervously.

"Pine Tree, I was drunk for about five minutes. It passed through my head rather quickly. First it made me sick, then it made me loopy, then it made me feel, well, feelings. I hated it and I'm never doing it again."

"So, then, you meant the. . . thing that happened in the classroom?" Dipper let his legs fall and crossed his arms.

Bill shrugged. "I couldn't tell you if I tried. This body is doing things to my head that I don't even understand. It might just save us time to pretend it never happened. But. . ." he trailed off.

"But what?" Dipper yawned, and laid down fully, letting his back relax.

"My body did enjoy it. I don't know if that makes it harder to forget or not, I just figured you should know." Bill's voice got quieter and quieter, and Dipper realized that he was falling asleep.

He stared at Bill for a moment, watching as his breathing evened out and slowed. Bill really did look harmless when he was asleep, and Dipper found that even though he was Bill, he hadn't minded the kiss either. Not that it meant anything, but it made him realize a lot more about himself, and he found himself smiling at him. Even though he was a demon, that had tried to kill his family, he somehow felt comfortable with Bill.

Clyde's voice rang in his head, about Bill playing him though, and he still wasn't fully prepared to trust Bill, but as his eyelids closed, he couldn't be happier that the demon was lying so peacefully next to him.


	11. Chapter 11

The two used what little time they had in the Mindscape to take out two shadows, Bill carefully avoiding Clyde, since he didn't want any kind of showdown in other people's heads.

As he woke up, Dipper found that he and Bill were tangled up again, but didn't bother to freak out, since he knew it would just cause more drama than needed. He stretched out, nudging Bill away a little. He didn't seem to be awake yet, and his body retaliated by pulling Dipper back over to him.

He struggled to get out of his grasp, waking Bill up.

"Pine Tree, I was comfortable. We don't have to get up anyway," he whined. He held onto Dipper tighter, and took a deep breath. "Stay here for a minute?"

Dipper wasn't sure what Bill was playing at, but he figured he would stay, since he was comfortable as well. "Any reason we need to be cuddling?"

Bill opened one eye and smirked at him. "It's warmer this way. Besides, my body wants this. I figure I'll get all of my body's wants out of the way with you, that way I won't have to deal with wanting to do them with other people."

"Whoa." Dipper pushed back a little from Bill and gave him a concerned look. "Not everything, everything, right?"

Bill let out a loud laugh, and pulled Dipper closer. "Don't worry Pine Tree, you're safe."

Dipper tensed up and became a little antsy. "I think it might be time to get up."

"We both know you already are," Bill chuckled.

Dipper's face turned a bright red and he rolled out of the bed. "I'm going to take a shower," he said quickly.

As he showered, he heard Bill and Mabel talking in the kitchen, and hurried out so that he could make sure Bill wasn't saying anything incriminating about him.

"So, what's that other demon's deal? He seems like he's got some issues." Mabel was sitting in front of a plate of something Dipper couldn't identify, and Bill had a matching dish.

"He's basically my cousin. And yeah, issues run deep the the family," he laughed.

Dipper looked at the clock on the stove, and saw that it was already mid-day, so he started to make himself lunch. "So is he just like, stuck somewhere? He made it sound like you have him locked up."

Bill took a bite of the mystery food, and seemed to enjoy it. "That extra room I have is marked up to keep any demon inside. Hell if the door closed on me I'd be stuck," he chuckled.

Without looking at each other, both twins made a mental note of that, and could tell that the other was thinking the same thing. If they needed it, they had a demon trap.

"Let's go to the mall!" Mabel exclaimed suddenly.

Both boys looked at her strangely and waited for her to respond in some way, other than smiling a goofy smile.

"Really though, we could all use a breather, and I can do some shopping!" Mabel scarfed down the rest of her food, and hopped up from her chair. "I'll go get ready while you two eat! Be ready when I come out!"

Bill looked down at himself and realized he was still in his pajamas. "What are you going to wear today Pine Tree? I might as well match with you again," he chuckled.

Dipper shrugged and grabbed his soup from the microwave. "The clothes I'm wearing right now work if we're just going to the mall." He looked down at his well-worn jeans and blue T-shirt, then nodded. "Yeah, this is good."

Bill snapped his fingers, and Dipper's shirt changed to yellow, and Bill was wearing black jeans with a blue shirt. "There, now we match."

"Alright then," he chuckled.

Mabel came out a little while later, dressed in a plain blue sweater with black leggings, and snorted when she saw the boys. "We're all matching! I have to take a picture!" She flung out her phone and pulled the two boys together, then snapped a picture.

Bill stuck out his tongue, Mabel smiled and put up a peace sign, and Dipper had blinked and nearly spilled what was left of his soup.

"That's a keeper!" Mabel sang as she danced away. "Now hurry up and finish eating slow pokes! I wanna go to the mall!"

The mall wasn't very crowded since it was a Sunday, but the few people that were there seemed to be giving Bill dirty looks, since he was running around as if he had never been inside a mall before.

"Pine Tree, was there one of these in Gravity Falls? Why didn't you tell me! Look at all of the people and stupid crap they're buying!"

"Hey, I'm a people, and I do not buy crap," Mabel scoffed. She crossed her arms and stopped walking, staring at Bill. "Speaking of buying though, you two should totally go find Halloween costumes while I go meet up with Jessica."

Dipper groaned. "That's why you wanted to come here. To trick me into dressing up this year."

Mabel nodded and waved as she started to walk away. "I'm being a mouse! Try to match!"

As soon as she was out of sight, Bill turned to Dipper with a large smile on his face. "Oh, Pine Tree," he sang.

"Whatever you're thinking Bill, no." Dipper walked off without him, but Bill made sure to follow his fast steps.

"You didn't even hear me out."

"I don't have to, to know that it's probably something I won't like."

Bill grabbed his sleeve and tugged him to the nearest Halloween store, ignoring his protests.

"Let's see what I can find for you," Bill said as he looked the aisles up and down.

Plastic weapons, masks of various ghouls and animals were everywhere, gallons of fake blood and cheesy decorations giving the store the complete, only-here-for-a-month-or-so Halloween look.

"Please don't put me in anything weird," he groaned.

Bill bounced around the store for a while, before stopping mid way through an aisle and shook his head. "I can make up better costumes with my magic, duh." He grabbed Dipper's sleeve and lead him back out of the store, looking as if he had somewhere to go.

"Where are you taking me?" Dipper protested.

Bill stopped for a moment, then looked around, taking in the small groups of people that were pooled around the stores and making their ways down each side of the main walkway. "There's gotta be some sort of magic store in here," he mumbled.

"I've been here a thousand times, trust me, if there were a store that sold anything magic, I would've seen it by now." Dipper pulled his arm from Bill's grip and looked around, seeing the usual mall he had always seen. Mostly clothes stores, the food court, and the occasional knick-knack store that sold super random, and cheap, weird stuff.

"There!" Bill grabbed Dipper's arm again and lead him straight into one of those weird little stores, and headed straight for the little rings and necklaces that were kept in a glass case. He stared down at them for a moment, biting at his lip. "Pine Tree, what do you want to be for Halloween?"

Dipper rolled his eyes and looked down at the jewelry with him. "I don't see how these dumb rings can help me dress up for Halloween. Mabel was serious when she said I'd better match her, so I can't just show up with a ring on."

The older man who was watching the store stepped over to them, his long pulled back hair flowing behind him as he walked. His boney fingers came together and he stood tall over the boys, looking down on them with a small smile that revealed his strangely perfect teeth. "I see you boys are interested in certain items." His gray eyes fell onto Bill's wrists and his smile widened. "And I see that you know how to use them. I don't get many of you around."

Bill smiled and crossed his arms in such a way that showed off his wrists, as if he were proud of the markings. "I'm looking for something for pleasure more than business. Halloween is coming up, and I'd like something with power, but not enough to make any of the effects, long lasting."

The man's gaze went to Dipper, who was shocked that the conversation was even happening.

He had been in that store a million times when he was bored, waiting for Mabel to be done shopping, and not once had he seen anything of the magic sort. Looking down at the rings, he still didn't know what Bill was talking about. They were just rings.

"I see. I believe I have the perfect pair for you two. Though I cannot promise that you will want to take them off after the night has ended." The man looked to Bill to see his reaction, almost as if he was hoping for Bill to waiver, but he didn't.

Instead he smirked at the man and held his stance, not showing any sign that he was going to change his mind. "I tend to stick to what I have."

"Alright. Don't say that you haven't been warned." The man unlocked the glass and showed one of the rows of rings that all had large stones set in the middle.

Bill looked at them carefully for a moment before plucking two rings from the case. With rings in one hand, he used his other hand to snap his fingers, making a small snake statue, made of what looked like turquoise, with the snake in a striking pose, appear on the counter. "You've been very helpful," he grinned.

"As have you. Have a fun Halloween, boys."

Bill walked from the store, Dipper following close behind, wildly confused as to what had happened.

"What was that all about?"

He stopped and grabbed Dipper's hand, slipping the ring onto his right ring finger. "You have to trade magic for magic. He gave us the best Halloween costumes someone could ask for, I gave him a charm that will protect his business from theft and bring in more customers, since shops like that tend to have a lot of shoplifters, and not a lot of people wanting to actually buy."

Dipper pulled his hand away and examined the ring. The material didn't feel as cheap as he thought it would, the ring having a good weight and shine to it, and the stone in the middle was an oval, that was a deep burgundy color, looking as if it were an actual pricey stone. "They didn't look this nice in the case."

"Of course not, they didn't have magic in them. Almost any item can be turned into a magical one, but certain ones are already magic, and just need a little jumpstart to go back to their original shine." Bill put his ring on, it looking similar, but the stone in his was a much lighter red color. Maybe it was a ruby? Dipper couldn't tell.

"Well, I think we should see what Mabel's doing. I'm done with being in the mall today." He pulled his phone from his pocket, and tapped away at his screen, asking what Mabel was up to. She responded quickly, letting him know that she was almost done, and that she would meet them at the car. "Alright, we can go wait in the car. Mabel said she'd be out soon."

They walked in silence, Dipper examining the ring as much as he could, almost bumping into people on their way out.

"It's really not complex Pine Tree. I told you, some things are just simple, don't overthink it." Bill leaned on the car and waited for Dipper to unlock it almost impatiently.

Maybe he was ready to go home too, Dipper laughed to himself. "I just think it's cool, I guess that's all." He yanked his keys from his almost too tight pockets, and fumbled for a second to find the right key.

A loud crashing sound from behind them made him drop them, and Bill looked back to see what had caused the noise.

Two cars had gotten into a small crash, one turning the corner and not in his lane, and the other in his own lane, waiting to turn.

"Just a fender bender," Bill said as he turned back to Dipper. His usual smug look vanished when he saw that Dipper was on the ground, breathing heavily, holding his knees to his chest. "Pine Tree?"

"I need Mabel," he breathed. "Where's Mabel?"

Bill wasn't sure what to do. Mabel wasn't at the car yet, and he wasn't sure how to contact her. "Star is fine, she's on her way to meet us, come on kid, it was just a bang."

Dipper showed no signs of calming down, and he dug his phone from his pocket frantically, nearly throwing it at Bill. "I need Mabel," he repeated. Being at a mall, the loud crashing sound, Bill there, calling him the name he couldn't stand, and Mabel nowhere to be seen was too much for him.

Not sure what else to do, Bill dialed Mabel and waited for her to pick up.

"Dipper, I told you I'd be out soon, geez. I'm heading out of the store now."

"Star? I think Pine Tree is broken."

"What? What happened Bill?"

"There was a fender bender in the parking lot, it made a loud noise and now Pine Tree is freaking out and keeps saying that he needs you."

Mabel cringed and sighed. "I told you, he can't handle loud noises. I'll be out really soon, just rub his back and tell him I'm on my way. And Bill? Keep the nicknames to a minimum when he's freaking out like this. It makes it worse."

The line went dead and Bill stood there for a moment, staring down at Dipper, who was at the point of tears. "Hey, it's okay kid. Your sister is coming out now, she's on her way."

Dipper nodded and tried to slow his breathing. He hated that he had a freak out like this in front of Bill, but at the same time he felt Bill should see what he had done to him. This was his fault anyway. Things like this wouldn't bother him if Bill hadn't put him through hell when he was only twelve. Maybe seeing him like this would make Bill realize that he had put him through enough, and he would stop being so pestering.

"You know, I'm going to show you some more magic when we get back to your place. I was going to save it until later, but I think you're ready for it. You did read the book right?"

Dipper nodded. "Some of it didn't make sense though." His voice was strained, since he was trying really hard to focus on where he was. He wasn't in Gravity Falls, he wasn't being chased by demons, and Mabel was safe. She was buying clothes with a friend, and she was safe.

"I'll help you through it"

"Why are you being so nice?" Dipper finally looked up at Bill, but before Bill could respond, Mabel bounced over and kneeled next to Dipper.

"You okay? I promise I didn't go anywhere, I'm okay. We're okay." She pulled him into a hug, and he happily hugged back, bringing his thoughts back to the present.

"I'm fine. Thank you Mabel."

She helped his stand up, and looked to where the cars had crashed into each other. "Everyone looks okay, they can handle it. We should go home and let you relax, okay bro-bro? I'm driving."

"I can sit in the back with him," Bill chirped.

The twins both looked at him skeptically, Dipper still a little worked up. Bill was being helpful, and it was weird.

"Dipper, what do you want?" Mabel picked up the keys and unlocked the car, but kept her gaze on her brother. His panic attacks were happening a little more frequently than she would like, and she was worried that spending time with Bill and other demon stuff wasn't helping. She thought for a moment about telling Bill to leave right then, and decided that his answer would make up her mind for her.

"If Bill wants to sit in back with me that's fine." He slumped into the back seat and kept close to the door. Even if he had agreed to let Bill sit with him, it was still his fault that he freaked out in the first place, and he wanted it to sink in for Bill.

The drive home was mostly quiet, until Mabel remembered why she had dragged them to the mall in the first place.

"Hey! You guys didn't pick out any costumes!" She looked in the rearview mirror and glared at them.

"Actually Star, we already have some. We just have to wait until Halloween to show them to you. They're a surprise."

"Yeah, even to me," Dipper grumbled.

"Well, whatever they are, they'd better match my killer mouse costume. I designed the thing myself. It's going to knock people's socks off!"

Bill laughed and relaxed into the chair, his eyes focusing on something passing by out the window. "Oh, ours will match. And they too will 'knock people's socks off'."


	12. Chapter 12

Dipper relaxed into the couch, his orange book in hand, waiting for Bill to join him. He had fully calmed his nerves, now that he was at home and he knew exactly where Mabel was, and was hoping to relax and ask Bill more about the symbols he couldn't quite get in the book.

While he waited for Bill, who had insisted on helping Mabel clean the kitchen, he messed with the ring Bill had gotten for him. He still couldn't believe the quality of it, and how much it had changed once it had magic in it.

"So Pine Tree, show me what you're stuck on," Bill said as he entered the room.

Dipper almost asked what he and Mabel talked about in the kitchen, but decided against it since he didn't want to deter Bill from helping him with the magic stuff. "Alright, there's a few, so bare with me."

"Wait, maybe it would be easier if we had all of my notes and stuff, from when I was trying to learn it."

"What do you mean, when you were trying to learn it? Wasn't that like thousands and thousands of years ago?" Saying that out loud made Dipper feel a little weird. Bill was really, really old.

He shrugged and leaned against the wall. "I have the breakdown of all of the symbols, and I could find the ones that you're stuck on. It would be easier to explain it with pictures anyway. Not to mention I need to check on Clyde. I'm sure he's feeling sorry for what he did by now."

Dipper stood up and dug in his pocket for his car keys. "Alright, fine. You're not going to trick me into staying the night, are you? Because if you are, just tell me now so I can bring a change of clothes for school tomorrow. And we'll have to wake up early so we can come get Mabel."

Bill laughed and moved away from the wall. "Go get your change of clothes and I'll set my alarm."

The apartment somehow felt, homier than the last time Dipper was there. He couldn't put his finger on it, but somehow it felt, warmer.

A loud banging on the bedroom door snapped his and Bill's attention to the hallway.

"Let me out Cipher! I am not staying in this place another minute!"

Bill smiled and nodded to the door. "Go let him out Pine Tree. I've warded the apartment so that Clyde specifically cannot leave, and I think it's fair to let him out of confinement now."

"Why do I have to let him out? Pretty sure he's not too fond of me." Dipper went into Bill's room and tossed his backpack full of sleepover stuff onto the floor near the desk that was still covered in books and papers.

"He'll try to fight me. And besides, I'm going to make dinner, so occupy him while I cook," Bill shouted from the kitchen.

"You? Cook?" Dipper laughed as he came into the hallway, standing in front of the door holding Clyde back.

Bill scoffed. "Just shut up and let Clyde out."

Dipper groaned and reached for the doorknob, regretting opening the door immediately.

"My pet is here!" Clyde pushed Dipper back into the wall and pinned him there, grinning from ear to ear. He was in a new outfit, one that resembled the outfit he wore in the Mindscape; a purple trench coat that looked like it came right from a pirate, and a black V-neck and black skinny jeans. "You're so much warmer here than you are in the Mindscape."

"Grim, let the kid go." Bill walked over and smacked Clyde in the head with a spoon and tugged at his coat.

Dipper took the distraction to slip away and went to the only place besides Bill's room to sit down, which was the large bean-bag chair in the front room. "Do you even watch TV Bill?"

"Nope! Just have it there for looks. There was one in every picture I looked at of human houses, so I figured it's just kinda supposed to be there."

Clyde followed Dipper into the room, and sat right on top of Dipper, putting a finger to his lips to shush his outburst. "Hush pet, I'm using you for your warmth. Cipher seems to think this place needs to be freezing all of the time."

"Do demons just not know what personal space is?" Dipper growled.

"Nope," Clyde and Bill said in unison.

Dipper rolled his eyes and adjusted himself more comfortably under the demons weight. Clyde seemed a little different from when he had first met him, almost as if he was trying to act high and mighty before. But the demon in front of him almost seemed childish, and spoiled, not proper and evil like at the dance.

"So," Clyde whispered "I have that deal ready for you."

"Oh yeah? Tell me more," he said sarcastically.

Clyde leaned back into Dipper so that his face was next to his and he smiled. "Work with me, help me beat Baltzy, and leave Cipher, and I'll promise to leave your dimension in peace afterwards."

"Congratulations, I trust you less than I trust Bill. That's hard to do." Dipper moved away from the demon as much as he could, and Clyde gave him the look of a spoiled brat.

"Having security that I won't turn around and destroy this place isn't enough for you? You don't have that much with Bill."

Dipper shrugged. "I know Bill a little better than I know you. As weird as it is for me to say, I'd rather work with him."

"He's keeping a lot from you, you know. He very easily could have an evil plan already in motion, and it could be right under your nose." Clyde rolled and straddled Dipper, smiling down at him. "Besides, you'd have more fun with me. I'm funnier than Cipher."

"At least Bill has a way with words." Dipper freed himself from underneath Clyde, and went into the kitchen, where Bill was actually cooking. "No magic?"

He lifted one shoulder in place of a shrug and turned to face Dipper. "Star said it would probably taste better if I actually made it." He opened the fridge, revealing that he had one of everything Dipper could think of, then picked out a few things to use for the dinner. "Don't listen to Clyde by the way."

"What do you mean?" Dipper leaned against the wall and watched as Bill started to cook and season some chicken as if he had done it a million times before.

"I'm sure he's tried to make a deal with you, or keeps talking your ear off about how evil I am. Believe what you want, but all I have to say is that he's been known to be childish and stupid, and lies to get what he wants. The whole reason I didn't invite him out here, was because he used to follow me around, which was fine at first, but then he messed up a deal I made and I lost my cool with him. It took me a long time to fix that mistake, and I was upset about it for a long time."

Clyde came into the room, and leaned on Dipper. "Can we just agree that we're both terrible?"

Bill laughed and nodded. "We're demons, of course we're terrible. Now you two go and hang out in the other room, I need to concentrate on doing this right."

Clyde grabbed Dipper's arm and dragged him back out into the front room, tossing him back into the bean-bag chair.

"And Clyde, leave Pine Tree alone. If he complains to me once about you, you're going back into the room!"

He rolled his eyes and looked at Dipper, who had an unamused look on his face. "You know, for the party animal he is, Cipher is a real dud."

"Yeah, telling you not to pester me is so lame."

Clyde snuggled next to Dipper and sighed. "If you won't make that deal with me, then how about this; if Cipher does go bad, if he really does have some evil plan, then team up with me to fight him. I won't let him get away with being that powerful again, and I'm willing to fight with you if it comes down to it."

Dipper was becoming a little uncomfortable with what Clyde was saying. What if Bill really did have a plan to turn on them? Would he be able to stop him? Why was Bill so open to Dipper using magic? "How about we don't officially shake on it, but I'll agree with you. If for some reason Bill is hiding something like that, I would appreciate help."

Clyde's shark like grin spread on his face and he nodded. "Fine with me, pet."

After a while of Clyde talking Dipper's ear off about how horrible Bill was, Bill finally came into the room, drying off his hands.

"Okay, food is finally ready. You're both my guinea pigs with this, so eat it then tell me what you think." Bill glared down at Clyde, who was smooshed up against Dipper. "Come get plates."

Dipper and Clyde disappeared into the kitchen to get plates, and Dipper ended up having to help Clyde do his, since he didn't get the full concept of putting the food on the plate then grabbing a fork to eat it with.

When they came back into the front room, they saw that the lovesac had been replaced with a black, leather, sectional sofa, and there was a coffee table in front of it, where Bill had kicked up his feet.

"Like it? I just figured there wasn't much space for people to sit down, so now we don't have to sit right next to each other." Bill patted the seat next to him and nodded to Dipper. "Unless we want to, of course."

Dipper's face turned red and he made his way over to the middle seat on the largest part of the sofa, a foot or so away from Bill.

Clyde laid on the shorter part of the sofa, propping himself up just enough to rest the plate on his stomach and eat comfortably.

As the two settled, Bill went to make himself a plate as well, leaving Dipper and Clyde alone again for a moment.

"I hope Cipher isn't trying to poison us or anything," Clyde laughed nervously. "I haven't eaten food yet since I've been in this body, and I'm afraid of what it may do to me."

Dipper shrugged and looked down at his plate. It was some sort of pasta, that looked and smelled surprisingly good. He took a small bite and tested the food, finding that it was amazing. His mouth watered at the thought of taking another bite, and he chuckled. "If this is poison, then this is the best damn tasting poison on this planet."

"I'm glad you like it Pine Tree. I had to test it on you two before I made some for Star. She's made me delicious food a few times, so I asked her the best way to make good food, and after following her instructions, we have this." Bill sat down closer to Dipper than Dipper would have liked, but he ignored it and just continued to eat, since it really was delicious.

Clyde watched as they ate, and hesitated before shoving a forkful of the food into his mouth. At first, he made a strange face, not sure how to deal with the fact that it really was good, but then continued to shove a few more bites into his mouth. After a few more mouthfuls, he took a deep breath and realized that something in his stomach felt strange. "What is happening to me," he groaned as he stood up, putting his plate on the coffee table. "I feel like someone is stabbing me."

Dipper felt fine, and assumed Clyde was just being dramatic. "You probably ate too fast."

He cringed and held his stomach, and Bill jumped up, rushing over to his side.

"I will never forgive you if you puke in here, let's go into the bathroom. Walk slowly, okay?" Bill wrapped Clyde's arm around his shoulders and helped him into his bathroom, where Clyde began to puke everything he had just eaten up.

He dry heaved for a couple minutes, his body trying to make sure that it was all out of him. "Why is this happening?" he whimpered.

Dipper stood in the doorway, watching as the demon he was so afraid of just a day or so ago, was nearly brought to tears because he was puking. "Don't eat so fast next time."

Bill shook his head. "I think his body is probably the problem, not the way he's using it. Clyde, what markings did you use?"

He shrugged and let his coat slip off of his shoulders. "Help me take my shirt off and I'll show you."

After his shirt was removed, with a lot of snickering from the purple-haired demon, Bill examined his chest and arms closely, reading the symbols and words under his breath.

"Well that's your problem. This is incomplete. If you want to survive in this body for any longer, you're going to need some new ones." Bill stood up and offered a hand to Clyde, who rejected it and forced himself to stand up.

"I don't know if I trust you enough to use the pen on me Cipher," he spat. "It's not like you could kill me instantly with it or anything."

Bill rolled his eyes and nudged him to lead the way out of the bathroom. "Fine. Then Pine Tree will do it."

Their eyes fell on Dipper, who was wide-eyed and shaking his head. "I still don't know some of the symbols."

"The ones he needs are simple. I'm not sure how the person who made his body couldn't get it right, but it should be easy for you." Bill went into his room, and shuffled around the papers and books before digging out the pen.

It really did look like a normal pen, which threw Dipper off since he was expecting something much more, magical, looking.

"That's the pen? It really is just a pen," Dipper chuckled.

Bill tossed it to him, he almost didn't catch it, fumbling around for a few seconds before he held it in one hand. "I made it look normal so people wouldn't mess with it, or take it. This pen has the power to kill people, and I didn't want people thinking it was just a cool pen."

"Any pen can kill someone if you stab them hard enough. Or in the eye, or temple," Clyde laughed. "It doesn't take much to kill these flesh bags."

Dipper ignored his gruesome comment and looked at the pen a little closer, holding it up to his face. "So this thing is what I'm supposed to use to fix him?"

"Yep. Clyde go sit on the couch, and Dipper, grab the book."

Clyde was sitting on the couch, with Dipper in between his legs, holding the pen to his stomach, nearly shaking with how nervous he was. Even though Dipper wasn't a fan of Clyde, he still felt an immense amount of pressure with drawing the symbols correctly.

Bill held the book open to the symbol that he needed, and talk Dipper through making the mark. "Just keep it steady and don't think too much about it. It's a super simple mark."

It was simple, a flame looking symbol that was supposed to go around his navel, but Dipper still was overthinking it. What would happen to Clyde if he did it wrong?

He took a deep breath, and began making the mark, looking in awe as the pen left a dry, thick, black mark behind it. His eyes drifted to the book every second or so, making sure he was doing it right.

Without saying anything, Bill pointed to another symbol on the same page, and lightly nodded to Dipper, letting him know to draw that one as well.

Once he was done, he could feel his hand shaking, but the marks on Clyde's stomach looked perfect. He stood up and admired his work, proud that his first markings were so clean.

"Nicely done Pine Tree," Bill beemed.

"What's this second one?" Clyde pointed to the second one, which was shaped almost like a small quill, and was just under the flame.

Bill smirked and closed the book. "You're now bound to whomever holds this marking pen."

"You tricked me Cipher! I knew I shouldn't trust you!" Clyde stood up and black flames lit up his body.

Bill stood up too, but didn't show any sign of threatening Clyde back. "Now, now. I did it because I think having you with us would be beneficial., but I don't fully trust you to leave this place without trying to use your magic to escape. Speaking of using your magic, try not to use it around the humans. They tend not to react to it very well."

Clyde's flames died down and he tilted his head. "I'm going to be around humans?"

"Yeah. But you won't be the only new kid at school, so don't think you'll be getting all of their attention."

"What?" Clyde and Dipper exclaimed at the same time.

"You're going to let him come to school with us?" Dipper crossed his arms and gave Bill a questioning look. What could the upside of having someone as annoying as Clyde around be?

"I'm with my pet on this one. I don't want to spend all that time with humans."

Bill shrugged and sat back down on the couch, relaxing into it. "I guess you could just stay here all day, every day. Stuck. Alone."

Clyde groaned and fell back onto the couch. "What's the catch, Cipher?"

"I've made sure that you either share a class with me, or Pine Tree. Who ever you have a class with, will be the one holding the pen, and will be in charge of you. If you step out of line, we will not hesitate to use it against you. And you start in the morning."

After argueing about schedules and ironing out some more of the minor details, they boys finally decided to go to sleep. Bill made the warded bedroom more like a bedroom, and made sure to keep the wards in place so that Clyde couldn't pull anything while they were asleep.

Once he fell asleep next to Bill, who insisted on cuddling, Dipper found himself at the doors immediately, rather than his own space in the Mindscape.

"Alright, so my game plan is that every fourth shadow, Clyde takes charge and kills it. I need you to start building up some more magic if we're going to be able to defeat Baltzy, but I would prefer it if you didn't get too powerful. And Pine Tree, which ever one of us changes while we're in here, you have to stick close to. Having you around helps keep him off our trail. Alright?"

Both nodded, but neither looked very convinced of the plan.

Bill groaned and let out a heavy sigh. "Look, I know neither of you trust me very much, but we have to work together to defeat this guy. As we speak he's probably about ten times more powerful than I am, and if I had to face him now, we would all be slaughtered. So just listen to me, alright? Pine Tree, you're with me tonight, and Clyde, distract the shadow while I change. It'll take me a little longer now that I have more magic to build up, but we're going to do this, and we're going to work as a team, got it?"

Again they both nodded, but that time with more sureness.

Dipper still didn't trust either of the demons, but Bill was probably right about working together. If that demon really did mean business, then they would have to work together to defeat him, whether they liked it or not.

In the morning, Dipper found himself on the edge of the bed, with Bill lying close to the wall. Confused by the lack of force cuddling, Dipper almost said something, but caught himself and just shut off his alarm on his cell phone.

"C'mon Bill, we gotta get up. You're the one who wanted to stay here and wake up early." Dipper nudged him, but all he got out of Bill was a groan.

"Pine Tree," he whined "we only got two shadows," he mumbled.

Dipper stood up and nodded slowly. "Yeah, and we worked as a team, everything went smoothly, now we need to go to school. You're the one who made Clyde a student, and you're the one who kept us up giving us a speech about keeping Clyde in line. Now get up." He began to change his clothes, not thinking about being half naked in front of Bill.

"Oh Pine Tree," Bill sang. "I thought you didn't like audiences." Bill was lying on his stomach then, a large smirk on his face.

"We've slept in the same bed multiple times, you've kissed me, and we sleep without shirts on anyway. I think I'll survive." Dipper was tired, and not about to put up with Bill's sass. "Now get up or I'm leaving you here."

"Alright, fine." Bill got out of bed in a huff and pulled his clothes on in a lazy manor.

Clyde was surprisingly ready to go when they let him out of the room, and after they all ate a quick breakfast, they headed out.

Dipper forced them both to sit in the back, since he didn't want Mabel to have to sit by either of them, and they both protested like children about it.

"Okay, new rule! When I am driving both of you have to zip it. My car, my rules."

Both crossed their arms and kept their mouths shut as they picked up Mabel, who was less than happy about the second demon being in the car.

"Dipper, what's with the demon parade? Bill's enough as it is. And didn't he try to kill us, like a few nights ago?"

"I know, I know. But he's helping us now, so it's okay. Either Bill or I will have control over him at all times, and he won't be able to do anything stupid."

Mabel sighed and rolled her eyes. "Just please don't let them destroy anything. Halloween is in a day, and I can't have them ruining my mood. I'm too psyched about this holiday for them to gunk it up."

"Can do sis. No demon will mess up our Halloween."

Dipper was relieved to find out that Clyde only shared one class with him alone, and it was his first period, which was quiet since it was English. He didn't make any outbursts, he kept to himself, and had no problem going to his second and third period with Bill.

At lunch, Bill and Clyde seemed to be in a deep conversation as Dipper walked up to the table.

"Ah, Pine Tree, there you are. How was first period?" Bill leaned on the table and smiled at him in such a way that sent chills up his spine. He felt his face get hot and he mentally punched himself. Did he just get butterflies from Bill smiling at him?

"I-it was fine. He did okay." He avoided looking at Bill, and kept his gaze down on the table, not wanting to face his inner thoughts.

Clyde smacked his hands down onto the table and stared at Dipper with wide eyes. "You're going to have to explain a lot of this human stuff to me. I really don't get what this meatsack is doing half of the time."

"Okay, but if it comes to anything awkward, Bill is in charge of that." He looked up at Clyde, who looked like he was in legitimate distress.

Bill chuckled and looked at Dipper. "I'll show him the internet later tonight."

Dipper couldn't help but laugh, which made Clyde get even more nervous.

"I don't want to see anything that will scar me. I don't trust Cipher with showing me anything."

"Don't worry Clyde, it'll be a good laugh. . ." Bill trailed off as Claire and a thin, mousy-looking kid with black hair came over to the table.

Dipper could have sworn he had seen the kid around before. But where? Back at his old house? Maybe on a trip? He couldn't place his face.

"Hey guys. This is my cousin, Ty. He grew up in Gravity Falls, like you Bill." Claire and Ty sat down next to Dipper.

That's where he had seen the face. Not someone he ever saw very often while he had visited, but he must've seen him a few times around town.

Ty wasn't just mousy in looks though- he was skittish like one too."Hey," he said quickly and quietly.

Bill's usual smug-smile seemed to twitch, a sign that he was uncomfortable with the new kid, but it didn't discourage him from being himself. "What a strange coincidence, this is my cousin, Clyde. He grew up in New York though."

Ty seemed to have his eyes glued to Bill and Clyde, as if he _knew_ that something about them wasn't quite human. "I don't think I ever saw you around," he mumbled.

"Though I am hard to miss, I can occasionally hide from the all seeing eye, keeping stowed away." Bill's grin faded when he saw that Ty was ignoring him and looking at Dipper.

"Your great uncle is Stanford Pines, right?" His shyness seemed to die off, as a wide smile spread on his face. "I've read like everything he's written, he's so cool."

Dipper grinned at the mention of Ford. He missed seeing is grunkles, and he was still a huge fan of Ford's work. "Yeah. He's my favorite author."

"Not like that's biased or anything," Bill mumbled.

Ty scooted closer to Dipper, and looked at him with wide eyes. "Didn't you help defeat that demon? Ford wrote about it in one of his more recent books."

Dipper looked at Bill, who was biting at his bottom lip. He couldn't tell what he was thinking, and didn't want to say anything to set him off. "Yup. Though, I'd prefer not to talk about it. You were there, you know how messed up things had gotten."

Ty's smile faded and he nodded. "Yeah, okay. I understand."

"So anyway, what are you guys doing for Halloween tomorrow? 'Cause everyone is invited to a party at my house!" Claire nudged Dipper in the arm and raised her eyebrows. "Wanna come?"

It felt like his ribs had collapsed, and he almost couldn't spit out an answer. She was so close to him, and he could smell her perfume. How could he have said no? "Y-yeah, of course I'll go."

Claire nodded to Bill and Clyde. "You two gonna come?"

Bill smiled, giving Dipper chills again, but that time it was from the mischievous look he had in his eyes. "Dipper and I's costumes are too good not to do, something, on Halloween."

"Oh good, you're already planning on dressing up! And I asked Mabel, she said she wanted to come too. So this'll be the party of the year!"

They all walked to class together, listening to Claire talk more about the decorations and how she convinced her parents to be out of the house for the party.

Ty kept his distance from Bill and Clyde, careful not to get too close. Dipper was beginning to worry that with reading all of Ford's books, he would be able to tell that they weren't humans, and that he might expose them to everyone.

He wasn't sure what that would cause. Mass panic? A witch hunt? He shook his head and took a deep breath. They would be fine. So long as neither of them said or did anything stupid, then it would be fine.

With two new students in the class, their teacher just told them that they would be a pair, and asked them if they wanted to pick a famous person who hadn't been on the list.

"Can we do Stanford Pines?" Ty said excitedly.

It was quiet for a moment as all eyes fell on Dipper, then the teacher shrugged.

"Are you alright with he and Clyde doing the project on your family member, Dipper?"

He shrugged with one shoulder. "Sure, I don't mind."

"Alright, well then, since they only have two people, they can work with your group sometimes. Especially since you'll be a great source of information on Dr. Pines."

With the tables split up into groups, the five of them sat facing each other, discussing their projects.

Bill and Clyde sat quietly for the most part, and Dipper remembered that Bill had said at one point that he was not going to do his half of the project, which meant Clyde probably wasn't going to help Ty. Which might be fine, since he was sure having them work together was bad anyway.

"Hey, Dipper, wanna see something cool? I've been practicing drawing runes and wards from your uncle's notes and stuff." He pulled out a black art book, and flipped open to the first few pages. Every nook and cranny seemed to be filled with alien or ancient markings and symbols, and Dipper's eyes grew wide.

"I didn't know he had so many in his books," he laughed nervously. There were definitely symbols on that page that Bill would react to, so he tried to think of something to change the subject.

"Those are interesting," Bill had a smirk on his face, and was leaning back in his chair, looking more smug than usual. "I'm sure whoever showed those to IQ must've been real sharp."

Clyde rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Obviously not, since it was sloppy and they didn't work very well anyway. Maybe if whoever it was wasn't in such a hurry it would've worked. Just saying."

". . .You guys have read his stuff too?" Ty was glaring at them, and looked confused. "You must've missed the part that said the demon had shown him them. I mean, it tricked him really, but he got a lot cool information from the ordeal."

"Of course. I used to hang out with Pine Tree and Sixer all the time back in Gravity Falls." Bill leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on the desk.

Dipper could not read his expression for the life of him, and he was beginning to worry that Bill would say something out of his cockiness. Hoping to create a distraction, Dipper reached over to the book to point at a specific rune he hadn't seen before.

Bill looked at Dipper and nodded lazily. "Maybe let's not touch things?" he said softly.

Dipper nodded and kept his head down for the rest of class, only talking when Ty would ask him a question. Which was more often than he would like, but he wasn't opposed to it.

After school, Dipper drove Mabel home, then headed to drop Bill and Clyde off at Bill's place, knowing that they would ask him to stay.

"Oh Pine Tree." Bill was lying on his bed, poking at the pillow while Dipper was sitting at the desk, looking over the papers he had given him to research.

"Hm?" He really wasn't paying attention to him, as it was already late in the day, and he was getting tired from reading the same lines over and over. Some of the symbols and words just would not stick, and it was becoming frustrating.

Bill rolled over onto his back and huffed. "I know I want you to read the magic crap and what not, but I am bored."

"Well, I'm trying to learn, so entertain yourself. You can do almost anything you want, you have magic," he grumbled.

"Nah, I feel tapped out for the day, even though I didn't really do all that much," he chuckled. "Don't touch random magic symbols by the way. Especially from the little Sixer-lover."

Dipper let out a half-assed chuckle. "I get the feeling you don't like him very much."

Bill pushed himself up and got off the bed. "Anyone who reads his stuff and doesn't know a demon when they see one is too dense for my liking. I prefer the quick cookies, such as yourself."

"Thanks?" Dipper looked up at Bill, who was then right in front of him.

"Get ready for bed while I go lock up Clyde. We need to get lots of sleep to party tomorrow."

It felt like a long time before Bill finally came back into the room, and Dipper was starting to nod off when he opened the door.

He didn't say anything, he just stripped down to his boxers then crawled into bed, looking more tired than he would probably admit.

"I really hate to ask," Dipper mumbled "but are you okay?"

"Sure," he huffed. "This body is just ready to pass out." He yawned and stretched his arms out, purposefully putting them onto Dipper's chest. With one quick motion, he moved Dipper closer to him.

Too tired to protest, Dipper just groaned and nudged Bill's arm away.

"Unless, of course, there's a reason to stay up," Bill sang.

"No," Dipper said suddenly and loudly. "I don't want to know what you're thinking, just, no."

Bill pulled Dipper closer and smooshed his nose into his cheek, planting a kiss on his jaw.

"Dude!" Dipper wriggled away and threw his pillow at Bill's face. "No."

"Aw, you're no fun Pine Tree." Bill tossed the pillow back over to him and huffed. "This body is just a little stressed and I can't tell exactly what it wants. The cuddling thing seems to help."

"You're stressed?" Dipper sat up and glared at him. "What could you be stressed about?"

Bill got the same look on his face from before, when Dipper had asked what he would do if he lost against Blatzy, and he shrugged. "As amazing as I am, and as smart, and handsome, and powerful, and-"

"Your point?" Dipper interrupted.

Bill chuckled and shook his head. "Even though I am all those things, I am still a conscious being, who understands when things may look bleak, or are not the way you want them to be."

"Oh," he said softly. Bill was being open again, and was almost more uncomfortable than the cuddling. Could Bill really be stressed out? Dipper knew what that was like, better than most people, and he hated himself for it, but he felt bad for Bill. He was a being who had never had to deal with these feelings, and now he's forcing himself through them to get rid of another demon.

Bill turned to face the wall, and Dipper could hear him sigh.

God dammit, Dipper felt bad. If it was a trick that Bill was pulling, then it was working, and Dipper hated himself for it.

Cringing, Dipper rolled back over and sighed. "Fine, come here. But no kissing!"

Bill rolled over and pushed himself against Dipper. "Thanks, Pine Tree."

School passed by much quicker than Dipper wanted it to, since he knew the demons were going to be hard to control at a party. He was hoping had Bill had learned his lesson with alcohol, and that he had passed that knowledge down to Clyde, who was impossible to read. Dipper had no idea how he was going to act at the party, so it made him dread it that much more.

He wondered if Bill worried about Clyde too, and starting to look at Bill a little differently. He had been so vulnerable, and seemed genuinely upset.

"So, Pine Tree, ready to see our costumes?" Bill was leaning against Dipper's door while Clyde laid on his bed, playing with the cell phone Bill had agreed to get him.

Dipper tried to keep his cool, since he didn't want to seem too eager, but he had been dying to know what the rings were going to do. "Show me," he said quickly, unable to hide his smile.

Bill laughed and took the hand with the ring on it. He blew on the stone lightly, and Dipper felt a strange, burning sensation go up his arm.

The world around him began to spin, and he felt nauseous. "Bill, what . . ."

Everything went dark. Dipper used every curse word he could think of as he fell into Bill's arms. What had he done to him? How could he let Bill put a charm on him like that? What if he didn't wake up?

But he did. He woke up sore, his joints aching with each little move. He was in his bed, and the room was dark. Or at least, it was supposed to be. There was no light on, and his curtains were closed. Usually his room was nearly pitch black if they were closed, even if it was mid-day.

"Bill?" Dipper rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. It was almost like there was a low light shining into the room, even though he couldn't find any source of light.

He forced himself to stand up, and examined his body to see if Bill had done anything to him.

Two eyes. That's good. Two arms, two legs, cool. So far so good. But what was up with his hands? His fingers felt, longer, and why did he have claws?

He felt his face, everything there felt normal. Ears. Ears? He couldn't believe what he was feeling. He had to look in a mirror.

Rushing out of his room, he barged into the bathroom - luckily no one was in there - and stared at himself.

Dog ears, on top of his head. His eyes seemed bigger than normal, and, what was- A tail. There was a tail.

"Bill!"

"Yes?" Bill was standing in the doorway, with a huge smile on his face.

"What did you do to me?" Dipper looked at Bill to see what his costume was. There were no ears, no tail. His nails were long and sharp like his, but he almost couldn't help but think that since he was a demon they were like that anyway.

"You're a werewolf! The rings changed us temporarily into a vampire and a werewolf. I thought you'd like being a werewolf more."

Dipper rolled his eyes and groaned. "This, is the amazing costume you've been freaking out about? I have a tail, ears, and I'm pretty sure I could use my nails like scissors."

"You look like a werewolf to me. And I'm pretty sure our fangs look convincing."

Dipper looked back in the mirror and opened his mouth. Sure enough, his top and bottom canines and the front teeth next to them were sharp. "I look like something right out off of Deviantart."

"Don't know what that is, and I don't care. I think we look fabulous. Though," he moved away from the wall and smirked "new outfits would be a nice touch." He snapped his fingers, and his outfit changed into a black button-up shirt, with the top few buttons undone, the sleeves rolled up, and the bottom half tucked into his dark jeans, that lead down to black tennis shoes.

Dipper was then in a ripped up, blue, flannel shirt, the buttons almost all undone, and the sleeves shredded up to his elbows. His jeans were ripped up as well, and he noticed that his feet were hairy. "This is almost too weird Bill."

"Let's just see what Star says."

Clyde was sitting at the kitchen table, his demon features out and prominent, looking bored. "My pet! Aw, you're actually a pet!"

"Not right now Clyde, I'm not in the mood."

"Are you ever?" he chuckled.

Mabel stepped into the kitchen, sporting a pink unitard with pink tights, covered by fuzzy pink leg warmers, a fake tail attached to her waist, and a headband with fleece ears hot-glued onto it. "You all look so cool! Dipper your ears look so real!" She tugged at them and he flinched, making her back away with a concerned look on her face. "T-they are real?"

Bill smiled, exposing his new fangs, and nodded. "Our costumes happen to be of the magic variety. Pine Tree's a werewolf, I'm a vampire, and of course Clyde's just letting his inner demons out."

Clyde seemed to be fascinated by Mabel's costume, and nodded. "Yeah, I'm just relaxing."

His voice sounded strained to Dipper, and he could hear his heart pumping in his chest. "This is really weird though. Too many senses going at once."

"You look so cool though bro-bro! We all look great! Picture time!" She pulled them all together and snapped a few quick pictures. "Alright, now to the party! They're waiting for us!"

Everyone from school was at the party. Claire lived in a nice, large house, with a back yard that seemed to go on forever that was filled with trees and plant life, placed wonderfully to accent each other and make the yard welcoming.

"Dipper, you guys made it!" Claire was dressed as a ghost, wearing white contacts to make her pure white outfit complete. "And you guys look awesome! Wow, those costumes almost look real!" She reached forward to grab Dipper's ears, but Bill pushed them all into the house, claiming that he needed something to get the party going.

"I'm here now, let's get this party started!" he said excitedly.


	13. Chapter 13

The large house was packed with teens in costumes ranging from cheesy vampires, to elaborate zombies with awesome makeup and acting skills, and the loud music had a few of them dancing in the mostly empty space in the living room.

Clyde seemed fascinated with each person's costume, and bounced around the house examining the details of every outfit, occasionally stopping when asked about his costume.

"He seems pretty happy," Dipper laughed.

Bill shrugged and leaned against a wall, watching Clyde boast about his outfit to a girl dressed like a nurse. "He's really weird about humans." Bill's gaze shifted to Dipper and he slightly nodded to the ring on his hand. "By the way, the warning the old man gave at the shop is something to keep in mind. These rings actually changed us into these things, and for some humans it's very tempting to keep them on. I expect someone such as yourself to be above being power hungry though."

Dipper looked down at his hand, which seemed to be even more claw-like than before. "Aren't werewolves supposed to be full dogs? Like why aren't I walking on all fours?"

Bill snickered and tapped the ring with his index finger. "I only gave it enough magic to do these small details. Couldn't exactly show up with you on a leash. Though-"

"No!" Dipper interrupted.

"I'm joking kid, relax," he laughed. "Anyway, you will slowly change more and more, but we'll be back home and have it off before you change too much. For now, go mingle. You're too much of a recluse."

Dipper rolled his eyes and walked away from Bill. This was a good time to see Claire, and do some normal stuff, instead of worry about demons and nightmares.

"Hey, Dipper!" Claire was sitting in a lawn chair with a plastic cup in her hand. "Your costume is seriously so cool!"

He sat in the chair next to her, careful of his new tail that was more sensitive than he would have liked. "Thanks. Y-you look really good in yours too."

She laughed and shook her head. "It was way easy to do. This year is my lazy year, since last year I went all out on my bride of Frankenstein's monster."

Dipper smiled, but really wasn't sure how to respond. He was so bad at talking to her, and he knew he would look like an idiot if he didn't say something. "This costume wasn't too hard to do either."

"Let me feel the ears!" She reached up and tugged at them, and he tried really hard not to flinch. "They're not on a headband?"

He swallowed hard. "W-well I have them pinned into my hair really well. Mabel and Bill both helped me get them on there so I wouldn't lose them."

She tilted her head and smiled at him. "That's cool! They turned out nice!"

Success, she had bought the lie. He smiled at her, but froze up again. Talking to girls was hard.

"Where's Bill? I thought for sure he'd want to talk my ear off about how you guys used to spend time with each other."

"What do you mean?" Dipper sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"In class when you're spacing out, he talks to me about how he used to follow you and Mabel around while you gets went on crazy adventures. He said he was always a little jealous of the bond you guys had."

Bill had said that? Dipper stared down at his legs, thinking. Bill did follow them around, but had he really been jealous of he and his sister's bond? He knew his family wasn't exactly close - whatever that meant for demons anyway - but could Bill feel jealousy? "Hm. I didn't know that he felt that way."

"Well, don't tell him I told you. I'm a little drunk and kinda maybe forgot that he said not to say anything," she giggled.

Dipper nodded and his smile faded. God dammit he couldn't tell if this was an elaborate scheme to make Dipper feel bad for him, or if he really was feeling lonely. "I'm going to go check on him."

What would he say when he found him though? Hey I know that you're either acting lonely or you are lonely, tell me which it is? That wouldn't work. He had to be more tactful than that with Bill.

Speaking of Bill, where had he gone? Dipper looked everywhere. Could he have snuck off somewhere? It was highly unlikely that he would sneak off with someone into a room or go home with someone. Right?

He began to worry, since it felt like a good half hour of no Bill, or Clyde for that matter, and he racked his brain for places he maybe hadn't searched. Had he been in the kitchen? Rushing over there, he got stopped by Mabel, who was giving him a strange, almost worried look.

"Hey bro, you look. . . really wolfy. Like, your hairier than I remember." She had been drinking and her speech was slurred a little, something Dipper would have to talk to her about later, but he was determined to find the demons first.

"It's fine. Have you seen Bill around?"

Mabel shook her head. "I've only been paying attention to Arthur here." She gestured to a guy with short black hair, dressed in one of the lamer zombie outfits, who looked annoyed that Dipper had taken her attention from him.

Dipper glared at him. "Yeah well you're coming home with us tonight. No paying attention to him all the way to his place."

"Says the guy who kisses demons," she laughed.

He shushed her and laughed awkwardly. "You're drunk, sober up so you can start making sense." Without waiting for a response, he walked off quickly, making sure not to get distracted by anything else.

Bill and Clyde were both standing quietly watching a few people play flip cup, and would laugh occasionally when someone would mess up. Which was more often than not, since most of the teens were pretty tipsy at that point.

"Hey," Dipper said almost too quietly to hear.

Bill turned to him and smiled, but it fell flat when he looked him in the eyes. "You're eye color matches mine."

"What do you mean?" Dipper leaned on the counter next to him and nodded to the game in progress. "And why on Earth are you watching this?"

"The ring is changing you a little faster than I thought it would, and your eyes are yellow. It should still be fine by the end of the night, but you need to stop feeding magic into it. Relax. Have a drink." Bill reached behind him onto the counter, where there were a few pre-made Halloween drinks set out, and handed it to Dipper. "It'll make you less tense."

Usually he wouldn't have accepted the drink, but he figured, what the hell, one drink would help him loosen up a bit, and there was no way this martini thing would get him wasted. He chugged it, cringing at the harsh burn it left in his throat, then handed the glass back to Bill. "There. Loosening up."

Bill's lips turned up into a smile, one that Dipper hadn't seen before. He looked actually happy. Not amused, not mischievous, not evil - happy. "I'm counting on you to rock that costume Pine Tree."

"Thanks?" Dipper met his stare and had a clearly confused look on his face, making Bill chuckle.

He nudged his elbow with his and leaned onto him. "Stop overthinking everything, seriously, loosen up kid."

Dipper took a deep breath and nodded. "Screw it, it's a party. Might as well have some fun."

"That's the spirit!" Bill boasted. "Now, let's play a game with the red cups!"

The night went on, with Dipper trying to show Bill and Clyde how to play some of the drinking games, finding that they caught on quickly and destroyed anyone who tried to play against them.

After a while, the party had died down, a little over half of the people had left, and the few that were left were either crashed, or in small groups, sitting and talking. The music was lowered to a murmur, and a few of the lights had been shut off for the people passed out around the house.

The three boys were all sitting on a bench on the back porch, all listening carefully to Claire tell a story about her trip to New York, where she met a few famous people on accident.

"So yeah, that's how I got this killer selfie," she laughed as the story concluded.

"I should travel more," Dipper chuckled. He was definitely feeling more relaxed. Almost too relaxed, he realized, as he noticed that Bill was sitting practically on top of him. He nudged him off a little bit, but Bill just cuddled in closer to him.

All three of them had had a few drinks at some point in the night, and each of them were feeling pretty good, a slight buzz keeping them warm and happy. But it was no excuse for Bill to be getting so friendly.

"I'm going to go check on Mabel." He got up quickly, letting Bill fumble to adjust himself as he fell from the lack of Dipper underneath him.

He had checked on Mabel a few other times throughout the night, and each time she was with that Arthur kid that Dipper wasn't very fond of. Of course, he hadn't been very happy with most of the guys Mabel fell for, but something about this guy seemed more off than the others.

The two were right inside the house, standing close to the kitchen entryway, and Arthur was a lot closer to Mabel than Dipper would have liked. In fact, Mabel didn't seem to be enjoying it much anymore either, as she looked a little sick and ready to go home.

"Hey, I think we're going to head home soon. Are you ready to go?"

Mabel moved closer to Dipper and nodded, giving him a look that let him know to get her out of there.

"Alright, let's go get Bill and Clyde."

As she moved away, Arthur tapped her butt, making Mabel let out a surprised yelp. "Hey, where you going? I thought we were going to go have some one-on-one."

Dipper felt as if ice had filled his chest and he clenched his fists. "Don't you touch my sister like that!" He shoved the guy back, and lightly moved Mabel back, keeping her out of the creeps reach.

"What's your problem?" Arthur steadied himself and smirked at Dipper. "She's been asking for it all night."

He couldn't hold his anger back, and he felt like the coldness in his chest spread to his arms and legs. "You don't talk about her like that either!" He shoved him back again, that time slamming him into the wall.

The commotion had brought a few people around them, and Bill and Clyde rushed in to see what was going on.

Arthur shoved Dipper back, then readied himself for him to retaliate.

The cold feeling reached his finger tips, and before he knew what was happening, his fists lit up with yellow flames, and he grabbed Arthur by the collar of his fake-bloodied T-shirt.

Bill wrapped his arms around Dipper and pulled him off, being more gentle than Dipper thought he would be. "Calm down, come on, let's just go."

Dipper could feel the ring burning on his hand, and it mixed really strangely with the cold feeling going through his body. "He touched Mabel!" He struggled against Bill a little, but found that Bill was a lot stronger than he was.

"Geez, you get way too worked up," Arthur laughed. He was clearly too drunk to realize the danger he was really in, and didn't even seemed too phased by the flames coming from Dipper's clenched fists.

Bill shot a look to him and narrowed his eyes. "Next time I won't hold him back, prick." His gaze went to Claire, who was staring in disbelief like the others were, and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll get everyone home just fine and explain in the morning. Sorry we had to leave in such a hurry."

After dragging Dipper outside, he shoved him into the passenger seat of the car, fighting with him to get the keys from his pocket.

Clyde was sitting in back with Mabel, holding her hair back as she emptied her stomach into a plastic bag.

Bill got into the driver's side, and to Dipper's surprise, he drove them to his house, where he pulled Mabel from the backseat and carried her into the house, only being gone for a moment before returning to the car.

"I put Star to sleep in her bed, now we're going to go to my place and get you taken care of."

When they got to Bill's apartment, Clyde willingly went into his room for the night, and Dipper fought and pushed Bill multiple times, fighting getting put into Bill's room.

He couldn't explain why, but he was so worked up, and just felt like he needed to punch something The cold feeling in his chest slowly started to turn warm, making him feel sick, and he started to wonder if he need to empty his stomach as well.

Bill pushed him onto the bed, and tossed his own ring off, not caring where it landed. "We need to take your ring off, now," he said softly.

Dipper crossed his arms and stayed still, keeping himself on the middle of the bed. "Why didn't you let me tear that guy a new one? He touched Mabel!"

Bill rolled his eyes and crawled onto the bed, sitting behind Dipper. He wrapped his arms around him and pulled him in close, pushing his lips to Dipper's ear. "You have every right to be mad. But this isn't you Pine Tree." He slid his hand down Dipper's arm until he reached the ring, and tugged at it while he spoke softly to him. "I'm sorry this happened. I should've been more careful with these rings, and shouldn't have given you the one that was quick to anger."

Dipper was relaxed then. Well, more dumbfounded, since he wasn't used to Bill being so gentle, and it sent chills up his spine.

The ring slipped off his finger, and the warmth started to fade, as did the world around him.

"Sleep tight Pine Tree. I'll make it all okay."

Dipper woke with a start, finding himself tangled up in Bill again. His head was pounding, and it couldn't have been more than an hour since he had fallen asleep.

Bill groaned as he tightened his grip on Dipper. "I just fell asleep Pine Tree," he mumbled.

"How come I don't go into the Mindscape when I pass out?" The question came out of his mouth right as it popped into his head. He hadn't thought of it before, but the weird feeling of being asleep without being in the Mindscape was too much for him right then.

"It's a mini magic-induced coma, not really sleep." Bill stretched his arms out, then put his hand on Dipper's face, cupping his cheek lightly. "Now hush, and go to sleep."

Dipper went to protest to both the statement and the motion, but was cut off by Bill pulling his face to his, planting a sloppy kiss on his lips.

"Hush," he repeated.

Bill must've put him to sleep after that with magic, since his eyelids closed, his body relaxing into Bill's warmth.

In the Mindscape, Bill and Clyde both agreed that they didn't have enough time to fully find and destroy a shadow, and decided to plan out what they were going to tell people about the party.

"Well, since I doubt Star will be gracing us with her presence tomorrow, it may just be you and I, Cipher."

"I'll be going too," Dipper protested. He was trying really hard not to look at Bill, since he could feel his lips still tingling from the kiss, and didn't want the awkwardness to show while Clyde was there.

"No, you won't." Bill's voice was stern and he leaned against a non-existent wall, smirking at Dipper. "You were so worked up you couldn't feel your body shutting down around you. You used magic without any symbols, and quite frankly, you would have dropped to the floor, half dead, had you not been wearing that ring."

Dipper looked at him, brows furrowed. "So I can't go to school?"

Bill chuckled. "Good luck moving your body in the morning. You're going to need way more than a few hours of sleep to work off that magic." He paused for a moment then crossed his arms. "I think we should at least put a few markings on you. Just in case you get worked up again. That way you don't kill yourself the next time you get upset."

He sighed and nodded. "Alright, but I get to know every single one you use, and if you trick me, then you can kiss me helping you goodbye." He cringed at his choice of words. Maybe not the time to use the word kiss.

Bill smirked and nodded. "Okay, it's settled then. Tomorrow Clyde and I will do damage control, and Pine Tree will get some sleep before we come home and mark him up."

The alarm on Dipper's phone made both boys open their eyes, Dipper finding it almost impossible to move to shut it off.

"Bill, get the thing," he grumbled.

Bill rolled on top of him, and shut off the alarm on the phone. "Got it," he chuckled.

"Get off," he groaned.

"Fine. But only if you get more sleep." He rolled off the bed, and leaned over Dipper's face, giving him another kiss before turning to get dressed.

Dipper tried to tell him not to do that anymore, but his jaw ached, and he found himself falling back asleep before Bill even had a shirt on.

At school, Bill and Clyde were gawked at, since what had happened at the party spread like wildfire, and rumors were flying left and right about Dipper not being human. And of course, the first one to have jumped to such a conclusion, was Ty, who in fourth period was going on and on about magic.

"It must've been when he was possessed by the demon! Ford mentioned it in one of his books that both he and his nephew had their bodies stolen by the demon who tried to end the world. It must've done something to him while it had his body!"

Bill rolled his eyes, and had to take a deep breath so that he didn't do his usual snarky response. "No, he is just able to use magic. Not very many people can, but he's one of the few. It only happens when he gets worked up like that though."

Ty's eye narrowed and he crossed his arms. "Well, regardless, I asked Ford about it in an email I sent him last night after the party, and he responded right away, saying that he wasn't quite sure, and that he would like to visit with Dipper. Which means," he sang "Ford is coming to town!"

Bill clenched his fists and couldn't hide the anger in his face. "You didn't think that maybe that was something he wanted to tell Sixer by himself? You really overstepped some boundaries kid."

"Yeah, Ty, that wasn't cool. What if he didn't want Ford to know?" Claire was glaring at Ty too, and did not look like her playful-self. "After knowing the kind of stuff he went through you thought it was okay to step over him like that?"

Ty's eyes were wide, and he shook his head. "I-I thought, maybe, it wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, Ford seemed really chill about it in his response."

"What exactly did you send in your message?" Bill leaned forward on the desk, and kept eye contact with Ty, who was beyond nervous at that point.

"W-well, I just told him what happened up until you guys left, then I asked what it could caused by. And he responded saying that he wasn't sure and that he wanted to make a trip down here."

Bill cringed and tapped his finger on the desk, desperately trying to keep his cool. Having Ford in town could throw a huge knife in his plans. "Trust me, from now on, leave dealing with the Pines family, to the Pines family."

Dipper woke up to a buzzing next to his head. Another alarm? No he only had the one before school. He flipped the phone over to see the screen, and saw that it was a call. From Ford.

"H-hey grunkle Ford! What's up?" He had to clear his throat, and he could hear that he sounded tired.

"Hey sport! I figured I'd call and check up on you. It seems like it's been a little while."

"Yeah, uh, I've just been kind of busy with school and stuff."

The line was quiet for a moment, then Ford cleared his throat. "Yes, well, I have spoken with your parents, and they said it would be alright if I came down for a visit! I have a lot of new discoveries to share with you, and I'm sure you have plenty to share with me."

His chest tightened. It was as if Ford knew what was going on. "O-oh! Cool! When are you coming down?"

"Within the week. I have a few things to finish up here, but I plan to be there as soon as possible. Tell you sister I said hello! And Stan says hello to you both as well, and that," he sighed "he hopes you've been practicing the tricks he's taught the both of you."

That brought a smile to his face. His grunkles were always the best to be around. Just, not while there were demons about. Hell, Dipper was literally lying in a demon's bed. And not just any demons bed, Bill Cipher's bed. How could he even explain any of this to Ford? What would he say?

"Well, anyway, I suppose I will let you go. I look forward to our visit Dipper."

"Yeah, I'll see you soon."

He let the phone fall from his hand and he began to panic. If Ford was only staying for a few days, he may be able to just tell Bill to lay low, and avoid having the two meet at all, but if it were more than a week, it may be hard to dance around the two demons.

"Hello, Pine Tree?" Bill was waving his hand in front of Dipper's face, and Dipper snapped out of his daydream.

"What?" He snapped. He didn't mean to sound so hostile, but he was super tense, and didn't want to deal with any quips from Bill.

"Yeesh, calm down. I assume IQ talked to you? That damn Sixer-lover is the one that invited him down. He told Ford that you had used magic."

Dipper groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping that when he opened them his problems would just disappear. No such luck, though.

Bill sat on Dipper's hips and crossed his arms. "Calm down, I can work with this. We can still go on like normal, we'll just need to really watch ourselves."

"Bill, get off. You've been way too friendly lately, and I'm super not in the mood."

He wiggled his hips and smiled down at Dipper. "What're you gonna do about it, Pine Tree?"

Dipper gave him an angry look, and huffed. "You really think pissing me off is a good thing right now?"

Bill leaned forward and kissed the tip of Dipper's nose. "You're like a little puppy barking at a wolf. It's cute."

His face turned beet red, and he stumbled over his words. "I am not cute, do not call me that."

Bill chuckled and his smile turned into a smirk. "Pine Tree, you're adorable," he teased.

Dipper had had enough, and he grabbed Bill's shoulders, pushing him off of him and down onto the bed.

Of course, Bill wasn't done messing with him, so he grabbed Dipper and pulled him into a hug, holding him while he struggled. "Hold still, cuddling reduces stress for you fleshbags."

He froze and looked at Bill. Bill was trying to calm him down. He knew Dipper would panic over Ford coming, and he was trying to stop Dipper from freaking out. "Why do you care if I'm stressed?"

"I like you kid! Can't have my favorite meatsack imploding from stress. Now shut up and relax."

Dipper opened his mouth to protest, but the cuddling, did feel nice, as much as he hated to admit it. "Fine. But we're having a big discussion about Ford coming to town, after this."

"Of course," Bill smiled.


	14. Chapter 14

**_AN: So I do all of my writing late at night, so please forgive errors and what not._**

 ** _Anyway, enjoy a chapter of the boys not knowing how to deal with feelings and junk :p_**

A couple hours had passed, and both Dipper and Bill had almost drifted off while cuddling.

Dipper was starting to get too hot, and had to move away from Bill, who surprisingly allowed him to move.

"Feeling a little better?" Bill sat up and adjusted his T-shirt since it had gotten all twisted up from Dipper struggling.

"I guess," he mumbled, still groggy. "What are we gonna do about Ford?"

Bill laid on top of Dipper, using his elbows on either side of him to keep himself propped up. "Well, I'm assuming he's going to stay until you two talk through the whole magic thing, so you're just going to have to get it out of the way."

Ignoring the fact that Bill was on top of him, since he knew that he did it for a reaction, he sighed. "What do I even say to him though?"

"There's only a few ways someone can trigger their magic. One is to do a ritual that involves a blood sacrifice, so make sure to be clear that it wasn't that one," he chuckled. "Yours was triggered because you wanted to protect Star, and I'm willing to bet Sixer will buy that. Just be sure to act like the party was the first time it happened. He doesn't need to know the first time was to get away from Clyde."

"Well duh," Dipper laughed. He shifted a little under Bill's weight, as he was becoming a little uncomfortable. "Could you get off?"

Bill smiled like a shark and pushed his nose to Dipper's. "Feeling uncomfortable, Pine Tree?"

He was trying really hard not to give Bill the reaction that he knew he wanted, but he wanted Bill to get off of him. "Dude, move!" Dipper wiggled underneath him, but Bill just smiled down at him.

"You're going to have to try a lot harder than that," he said in a sing-song voice.

Dipper rolled his eyes and blew in Bill's face, making him flinch back. "Wasn't expecting that, were you?"

Bill put his hand behind Dipper's head and carefully grabbed a handful of his hair, then pulled Dipper's face to his, giving him a wet, sloppy, kiss. "And you," he tapped his nose as he pulled away "weren't expecting that."

"Actually," he breathed "I kind of was, you've done it a lot lately. I don't think it's something you should make a habit of right before Ford comes into town. I can't really explain why I have a demon hanging on me."

Bill's smile dropped, and it looked like he actually agreed with Dipper. "I'll just have to get it all out while we wait for him."

"What? No, Bill-"

Bill cut him off by tickling his sides, and occasionally kissed his cheek through the struggling.

"Bill, stop!" Dipper was trying to get off the bed, and eventually did, when he fell off with a loud thud. He groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

Bill was looking down at him and was biting his lip. "Sorry."

Dipper stood up and grabbed his phone off of the bed. "I'm going home to check on Mabel."

When he got home, he immediately changed his clothes and took a quick shower, then knocked on Mabel's door, hoping that she wasn't mad about the night before.

"Uuughh," she groaned. "Not so loud!"

Dipper peeked into her room and smiled sheepishly. "Can I come in?"

A muffled, "yes" was gurgled, and Dipper slowly pushed the door open to find Mabel laying in bed, still dressed in her mouse costume.

He chuckled at the sight and cleared his throat, trying to make sure she knew that he had entered the room. "You feeling okay?"

Mabel sat up and rubbed at her head. She wasn't about to admit to Dipper that she had had enough alcohol to have this bad of a hangover, but she knew that she was caught regardless, so she just stuck her tongue out at him.

"I see," he laughed. He quieted for a moment and thought about what to say. "Listen, Mabel, about last night. I-I'm sorry. I really didn't mean-"

"Dipper, the guy grabbed my butt. You had every right to be upset. I was too. I mean, yeah you may have overreacted a _tiny bit_ , but I'm not mad." She sighed and looked down at her outfit. "How did I end up in bed anyway? The last thing I remember is Clyde helping me get into the car."

"Bill carried you in." He walked over to the bed at sat near her feet, leaning on the footboard as casually as he could, since he didn't want her to see that he was still a little tired from the magic. "The demons were more responsible last night than I was."

Mabel nodded. "At least Bill seems like he's actually here to do some good. He could be being a much bigger jerk."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "I've just kind of started to ignore most of what he does. . ." He trailed off and sighed. "Mabel everything is weird right now, and Ford is coming down for a visit because Ty told him that I used magic, and I don't know what to tell Ford if he found out about Bill. He'd probably freak out and try to fight him or something, and I'm pretty sure Bill would win, I've seen what he turns into, it's not pretty."

She leaned forward and put her hand on his back. "Everything will be okay Dipper. I'm sure if grunkle Ford does find out about Bill then we'll be able to talk with him about it. Ford is pretty down to Earth, I'm sure he'll take talking over fighting."

He shrugged and nodded at the same time. "I guess."

Mabel got up and stretched, ignoring the tingling sensation in her head. "When's he comin' down anyway?"

"He said sometime this week. He had to finish up some stuff in town, then he'd head over this way. Stan says hi by the way."

A large smile spread on her face. "You think he might come along too?"

"I-I don't think so. Ford made it sound like it was just going to be him." Dipper stood up and huffed at the pain in the back of his head, then rubbed it. Stupid Bill, knocking him off the bed.

"Something wrong?" she asked as she unclipped her hair from its matted mess of bobby pins.

"Bill accidentally knocked me off the bed and I hit my head. I'm fine, it just stings."

She wasn't sure what to make of the two boys, and really didn't want to push Dipper into anything he didn't want to do, but she definitely wanted to keep her ability to make Bill go away if needed, so she sucked in a deep breath and cringed at her own words. "How are you two? He seems like he's been really attached to you lately. That a good thing?"

Dipper shrugged again and put his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "He keeps just acting like I'm his, his boyfriend or something. I don't know if I like it." He looked away from her and bit his bottom lip. "But I also don't think that I hate it."

Mabel froze and her face lit up with surprise. "You think you've started to feel something for Bill?"

He cleared his throat and shrugged. "I-I don't even know Mabel! I just. . . don't hate the affection. At first I did, and it was really unwanted, but now I feel bad about him feeling bad, and every time he. . . is affectionate, I don't mind it. Is that wrong?"

Mabel shrugged with one shoulder as she tried to brush through her matted hair. The pulling at her head didn't help the constant thudding in her ears, and she gave up and sighed, figuring that she would just try to get the knots out with conditioner when she showered. "I told you Dip, feel whatever comes to you. We're adults now, and can make our own decisions. If feeling a certain way towards Bill makes you happy, then by all means, do what makes you happy. Just, be careful." She sat on the bed next to him and rested her hand on his shoulder. "Bill's sweet, but he's still a demon. No matter how actually kind of awesome he's being, I don't want you hurt."

Dipper smiled weakly at his twin and nodded. "As always, you're a huge help. Now go take a shower. I'll make the food for once."

The next few days felt like some sort of odd purgatory. Bill and Clyde had fully prepared to disappear for a little while, making sure that they could avoid Ford as much as possible, and Mabel was too busy preparing the house for Ford's visit to talk much, since he had called her and given her a better window of when he would arrive.

Dipper spent most of his time reading over the book again, hoping that he could get a better grasp on the symbols and magic stuff before Ford tried to talk with him about it.

Bill had drawn only four small symbols on Dipper, -one on each side of both wrists- and told him that those would be enough for the time being, so long as he didn't do anything too crazy.

"No more fire," Bill chuckled as he finished making the symbols.

They were at Bill's place, the night before Ford would arrive, and Dipper was admiring the new small tattoos.

"My mom's going to kill me," he laughed shakily.

"You either die from your mother's wrath, or from the magic. Take your pick," he laughed back.

He moved his wrists away from Bill and rubbed at them. The pen tingled and was almost a little painful. "The tattoos don't sound as painful."

Bill leaned back on his bed, resting on the wall it was pushed up against. "So, seems like we may not really see each other for a couple days. . ." he trailed off.

"Yeah, seems like." The air was a little awkward between them since Bill had accidentally pushed him off the bed. Did Bill feel bad? Dipper avoided looking over at the demon and took a deep breath.

"Pine Tree, if the things I'm doing really bother you, I can stop. I mean no harm with them. They just. . . make me feel, not bad."

He bit his lip and sucked in another deep breath. "What's making you feel bad?"

His eyes fell away from Dipper and he ran a hand through his hair. "Being in this fleshbag. That and I don't feel like we're getting shadows quickly enough." He looked down at his hand and sparked up a small blue fire in it. "It's kind of funny that your fire is yellow though."

"Why so? Isn't most fire yellow?" Dipper finally looked up at Bill and watched the fire burn in his hand for a moment before Bill let it die.

"Magic is different for every being. The fact that our colors match so perfectly is just amusing, that's all." He closed his hand into a fist and met Dipper's stare.

Dipper felt a heat rise to his face and he was sure he turned a bit pink in the cheeks. Bill's eyes were so golden and so full of life. He blinked and looked away quickly. Shit. He wasn't supposed to like looking at him. "Maybe you should stop doing the whole affection thing. I know it makes you feel better, but," he paused for a moment and thought of what he could say "it makes me feel worse."

"Oh." Bill stayed still for a moment before looking down at his legs. "You should probably go get some sleep." His voice was quiet and his face was blank of any emotion.

Had he hurt Bill's feelings? Did Bill really have feelings to hurt? "Don't be so difficult!" Dipper snapped. "You can't make me feel bad for you like this! What if you're just stringing me on? How do I know you aren't planning on making me feel sympathy for you, then turning around and using it all against me?"

Bill's head shot up at the sudden shouting and he stared back at Dipper with wide eyes, keeping his face from showing any emotion. "Believe what you want. I just. . ." Bill let his head fall back and he looked at the ceiling. "Can I be alone for a little while?"

"You don't have to ask, I'm leaving." Dipper got up and stormed out to his car.

What the hell was going on with his head right now? Why did he care so much about what Bill was feeling? The damn guy had a cute body, sure, he wasn't going to deny that anymore, but he was an ass. He tried to kill Dipper and his family, and that was that.

Dipper gripped at the steering wheel and took several deep breaths as he pulled into the driveway. There was another car there. Ford's. He had come a little earlier than he said.

Dipper let out a frustrated groan and let his head mash into his palms. He was in no mood to deal with other people right then. Not while he was so confused and upset. He didn't even know why he was feeling that way, which made him more upset.

Gritting his teeth, Dipper made his way into the house and did his best to not seem so flustered.

"Dipper! How're things?" Ford was sitting on the couch next to Mabel, who was holding a mug full of coffee, and Ford had a book open, looking as if he had been reading it to her.

Mabel noticed her twins distress right away and cocked her head at him. "Everything okay?"

Dipper felt an uncomfortable lump form in his chest and he bit the inside of his cheek. "I just, am going to go to my room. Sorry to be rude." He stomped off and nearly slammed his door behind him.

Should he even sleep that night? He really didn't want to face Bill, but if the concern for the amount of shadows was real, then he should just suck it up and help people.

Without really deciding on what he wanted to do, he drifted off after a while, and found himself in the trees again. Something was different though. All of the trees had black bark, and there was actual sound of wildlife around him.

Both Bill and Clyde appeared by him, and they went about their routine, Bill completely ignoring Dipper's existence. Which made Dipper sour.

Fine. If Bill was going to play that card, then so would he. He didn't have to deal with him until Ford was gone anyway.

As Dipper's door closed, Ford stared after him and looked at the boy's twin. "Is he alright?"

Mabel bit at her lip and nodded. "Probably just some issues with his uh, friend. They've been arguing a lot lately."

"Friend huh? Is this friend of the romantic nature?" he chuckled. "Not many people get that flustered over something platonic."

She clenched her teeth and sucked in a breath. "Well. . . It's complicated. That's for sure."

Ford let out a laugh and shook his head. "Relationships are a mess. That's why I never really got into all that. Poor Dipper's a good lookin' kid too, so I'm sure he has a few women trying to get his time."

"It's not a girl." Mabel took a sip of her coffee and kept her eyes on the floor.

"O-oh. Well. Either way. Relationships can be hard. You're a sweet girl for believing in them so strongly."

She nodded and took another sip of her drink before setting the mug down on the coffee table. "So how was your trip down here?"

Ford closed his book and set it by her drink then pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing it lightly to sooth where his glasses had been sitting. "Well, it was a trip. I'm not really one for driving." He adjusted the glasses and looked back at where Dipper had disappeared to. "So I heard that he had a bit of an outburst the other day."

"A guy grabbed my butt at a party and Dipper was just being protective. His friend was able to calm him down."

"As he should be!" he boomed with a scowl. "Young men and hormones, I swear. Was this the same friend that's causing issues now?"

She nodded again. "As horrible as this sounds, they're almost too much alike to get along. They're both interested in the same stuff, and they talk like each other, but bicker like an old married couple. It's strangely cute."

Ford laughed and nodded. "I think I'd like to meet the kid. Is he social? If he's like Dipper he might be too quiet to hold a conversation!"

Her chest tightened and she stammered a bit before answering. "H-he is actually pretty extroverted, but I doubt you'll see him while you're here. Especially since it seems like they just got into a fight. But, if you do. . ." she shifted positions and looked down at the couch "his name is William Anderson. He goes by Bill."

His brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed. "Bill, huh? And he's giving Dipper trouble?"

"I-it's not that. Dipper freaked out at first, but they've worked past his name."

Ford stood up and cleared his throat. "Well, either way, I'd like to meet the young man. I'm turning in for the night. Goodnight Mabel."

She nodded quickly and smiled awkwardly. "Night grunkle Ford."

As she laid in bed, she began to worry. She had said too much about Bill's existence, and now Ford was keen on meeting him. He would probably ask Dipper about it, and Dipper would probably start to panic as he tried to spit out excuses.

She sighed and shut her eyes tightly. There was no point in worrying about it so much. Ford was bound to hear something anyway, right?

Her breathing steadied, and her eyes stayed closed on their own, sending her into a dark room, where she couldn't see anything.

Dipper was standing with his back to her and she reached out to touch him. Something in her gut felt wrong and she wanted to make sure he was okay.

Her hand went straight through him and she stumbled a bit. "D-Dipper?"

Without turning his head, he glanced at her and glared, eyes filled with disgust. "Some sister you turned out to be," he said as he walked into the darkness.

"What? Dipper! Come back! Don't leave me!" She reached forward to grab at him again, but he flinched back and shook his head.

"Don't ever come near me again. I hate you."

Mabel shot up in her bed and looked around the room. She was back in her room, and it was almost sunrise. "Just a nightmare," she huffed.

 ** _AN: Nightmares spare no soul, and shadows follow us all._**


	15. Chapter 15

_**AN: Might start doing a scheduled day to update this story, but idk yet. I'll let y'all know :p Next chapter should be much longer, as a lot is going to happen :p**_

It being a Saturday, Dipper was hoping that Ford's visit would be over by Monday, and that he wouldn't have to deal with Ford being there while he went to school.

Having Bill and Ford meet would surely end in some sort of showdown, so Dipper figured he'd clear his head and speak with Ford about his magic quickly, so that there was no chance of that even happening.

After putting on a watch for his right wrist, and a few thin, leather bracelets on his left to hide his markings, Dipper made his way out into the kitchen to face Ford.

"Morning Dipper! How did you sleep? I know you're too much like myself and probably stayed up late, contemplating the universe." Ford smiled at him and set his fork down onto the plate of food Mabel had made for him.

Dipper smiled back and sat down next to him, leaning back into the dining chair. "No, lately I've actually been kind of trying to sleep. Makes school easier." He paused for a moment then ran a hand through his messy hair. Man he needed a shower. "Sorry about last night."

Ford took another bite of food and nodded as he chewed. "It's fine. Mabel explained to me that you had a bit of a spat with your friend."

Dipper glanced over at Mabel, who barely looked up from her food to acknowledge that someone had said her name. She looked tired.

"Speaking of your friend, I think I would like to meet him. After, you tell me about that party you went to."

Trying to ignore Ford's request to meet Bill, Dipper took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "I just got worked up over that guy thinking he could touch Mabel like that, and before I knew it, my hands were on fire and I was about to rip the guy to shreds."

He nodded slowly. "I see. Do you remember what you felt right before it happened?"

"Cold. It started in my chest then spread outwards from there. Once it reached my fingertips, the fires started." Dipper was glad that this conversation was getting over with. He still needed to find a way to distract Ford from wanting to meet Bill though. "Can we maybe go out to the library to see if we can find some books on this?"

Ford smiled and nodded. "Great idea! Get some breakfast then we'll head out. I have some things I'd like to share with you as well! It'll be nice having someone to share it with, since Stan isn't really one for this kind of chatter."

When Dipper was about halfway through eating, Ford went back into his room to grab a few notes and books to take with them, and Dipper took the time to talk with Mabel about the demons.

"I'm going to try and distract Ford while he's here so that he doesn't have a chance to meet Bill. If anything comes up though, let me know, okay?" Dipper looked up at her, and saw that she was nodding while yawning. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just tired. I stayed up making a sweater for someone. Bad idea," she laughed. That was kind of the truth. She was making sweaters for four people actually, but she wasn't about to tell Dipper a nightmare was the thing that prompted the late night.

"Okay. Well, we'll be back later. Maybe take a nap? Don't over work yourself."

Mabel nodded and grinned at him. "Have fun. Don't stay out too late. Love you, bro."

Dipper raised an eyebrow at her. She didn't usually say things like that so. . . so sadly. "I love you too Mabel. Please try to get some sleep."

Once they had left, Mabel cleaned up the kitchen a bit, then went to relax into the living room and watch TV.

An episode or two ran without her paying much attention, and she began to drift off, leaning on the armrest of the couch.

"Hey," a voice said softly. "Star?"

Mabel forced her eyes open and saw Bill standing next to the coffee table. "Bill? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He was using a relaxing voice, and it made Mabel a little weary of his intentions. "I, uh. I just needed. . . to ask, something."

She sat up and blinked at him. He seemed. . . distressed? Something wasn't as right with him. "Well, sit down and ask it then, silly." She patted the seat next to her and he hesitated a moment before joining her on the couch.

He took a deep breath and looked at her with wide eyes. "You get emotions, right?"

"I mean, I guess so? What do you mean?" She twisted so that her legs were underneath her and she was facing Bill. He looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep either.

"This stupid brain. It's making me want something, but I don't really know what. My chest will feel heavy, my face will get hot, and something in my gut feels awful when he's upset."

Mabel blinked at him again, mouth slightly open. "D-do you mean Dipper? You feel like that when you're around Dipper?"

Bill brought his knees up to his chest and rested his elbows on them. "The kid's a mess, and _I_ want to mess with him, and poke fun at him, but my body and this brain are telling me to smash my lips onto his, and hold him because he's warm. It's frustrating."

She couldn't help but let out an awkward laugh. "Oh man, Bill, you like Dipper. Like, your body wants to be his boyfriend."

He scrunched his nose and looked down into his lap, biting at his lip.

"Is it just the body doing it, or are you invested as well? Because I know we had a deal, but I will not sit and let you break Dipper's heart. If you start to lead him on I will take that as a threat to his health and make you leave."

Bill brought his head up to look at her. Whatever emotion he was feeling right then was gross, and he shook his head. "I don't know what I want right now," he admitted. "Do you really think he'd let me in close enough to even get to a point that I could break his heart? Not that I would, I just. . . I think he still hates me. Which is entirely fair, but. . . I don't know."

"You boys," she laughed as she shook her head. It was really weird seeing Bill be so vulnerable. He was a love-sick puppy dog asking for help. "I bet if you tried he would. Let you in, I mean. A little birdy told me that he doesn't hate the kisses."

His face turned pink and he looked away from Mabel. "H-how would one go about making it so that they returned them?" He looked back at her and noticed her clear confusion. "He helps me feel not stressed. And the whole affection thing seems like it would be a lot nicer if it were being returned."

A large smile spread on her face. "Alright Bill, I'll teach you how to romance my brother. But, you have to promise not to be just leading him on and using this for some evil plan. No back stabbing."

Bill nodded a little too eagerly. "Of course."

Mabel shook her head and reached out her hand. "Shake on it. I want this to be an official deal. No hurting Dipper. And this isn't a one-hundred percent guaranteed thing. If Dipper does not end up wanting it, then we stop. Deal?"

Blue flames lit up Bill's hand and he took hers, shaking it firmly. "You got it, Star."

"Good," she said as the flames died down. "Now, first things first. Go a little more slowly with the physical contact. Dipper's isn't really very open, and needs time to warm up to things like that. Start with small stuff, like nudging him playfully, or if you're in bed together, play with his hair a bit to help him sleep."

"You knowing your twin so well comes in handy," he laughed.

"Sure does! Now, stand up, and put your arms out." She stood up as well, and waited for Bill to comply.

He felt a little ridiculous, but did as he was told. Anything to avoid the way he was feeling when Dipper told him that he didn't like the affection.

"Alright, now I'm going to show you the places that Dipper hates to be touched. One," she ruffled Bill's hair and moved the slightly too long blond locks from his forehead "his forehead. He's still all sensitive about his birthmark. Two," she touched at his sides, tickling him a bit "he doesn't care for tickling. At all. A little here and there should be fine, but we've had tickle fights end with punches and time outs."

"Makes sense. I-"

Bill was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, and Mabel whirled around to see who it was.

"We're back," Dipper said, almost a little cross sounding. He must've not been able to stall Ford for as long as he wanted to.

Mabel's eyes grew wide as they walked into the room, and she turned back to face Bill, but he was gone.

"What're you doing?" Dipper stepped forward and looked to where she had been looking.

The two stared at her with strange looks and she spun back around to face them. "Nothing! Nothing! Just me. Doing nothing!"

Dipper narrowed his eyes at her. He could always tell when she was lying. "We'll talk later," he mumbled.

"Sorry to be back so soon. The library here had nothing of interest. It was an alright place to study, but there were a lot of people there at the time. We've decided to just use the kitchen. Plenty of space in there." Ford took his bag into the kitchen, and Dipper followed, trying to keep the questions and subject on the creatures Ford had been studying.

Mabel took a deep breath and sat back down on the couch.

"Hey, watch it," a voice said quietly.

She yelped and shot up, looking down at where Bill had suddenly become visible on the couch.

"Sh!" He hushed her and his eyes widened.

"Mabel? Are you okay?" Dipper's voice called from the kitchen.

"I'm fine! Fine! Stay doing your nerd stuff!" She sat next to Bill and scowled at him. "I thought you teleported!"

He shrugged, has way oversized black hoodie nearly covering the motion. "I teleported here, and it takes too much magic to do it back and forth. Making myself invisible took way less magic, and I knew Pine Tree would kill me if I showed up while Ford was here, since we spent hours discussing how that was a bad idea."

She nodded and took in a deep breath. "Right. I'll drive you home. Wait in here."

". . . so there I was, hugging a tree, watching the thing move around the rock, sniffing it as if it had something interesting in it." Ford paused his story when Mabel walked in and the two looked at her, waiting for her to speak, since she looked like she was jittery.

"Dipper I need the car keys. I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" He dug into his pocket to fish them out and held them in his hand while he waited for an answer.

"Look, it's my car too, I helped pay for it, so I can take it when I want."

He tossed the keys to her then held his hands up in defense. "Geez, alright."

With the keys in hand, she walked to the front door, quickly motioning for Bill to follow her out.

He did, quickly, since he knew if he got caught Dipper would be furious with him, so he tried his best to not make any noise.

As soon as they were both in the car, Mabel did a little celebration dance. "Clean get away! Yeah!"

Bill nodded and smiled at her enthusiasm and buckled his seatbelt as they pulled away from the house.

"So. . ." Mabel said as she tapped at the steering wheel. "Thanks for the other night. The whole putting me to bed thing. It was sweet of you."

He waved his hand at her and kept his stare out the window. "No big deal Star. You're a sweet girl, I don't mind helping you out."

She nodded. "Dipper doesn't really like secrets."

"What?" He turned his head to face her, but she just nodded again and focused on the road.

"Anything you've been keeping from him; if it comes out and he feels like you were keeping it, then he'll get mad. Especially since his trust with you in on thin, thin ice. I understand keeping some things to yourself, everyone deserves their privacy, but if there's something big, he should know. He is helping you, so he has a right to."

They pulled up to the building and Bill paused before opening the door. "Noted. And, thanks Star. If you ever need anything, let me know. I owe you a few at this point." He got out and walked inside, looking a little more like the demon he had been a few days ago, before the fight.

To keep herself awake, Mabel blasted the radio and rolled her window down, feeling the cold air on her face. She was going to go home, act like nothing happened, then crash. If she still couldn't sleep, then she would just work on her sweaters.

It felt good though, helping Bill try to romance Dipper. Oddly enough, anyway. The two were so much alike, and yet so different, they would work perfectly with each other.

"Dipper? Bro-bro?" She found herself in the dark room again after drifting off for her nap, and wanted to see a familiar face to comfort her in the darkness.

"Bro?" a voice mocked. "What kind of sister helps a demon trick her brother into falling in love? How sick is that?"

"What? N-no, Bill really likes Dipper. He promised not to hurt him."

"He'll hate you. Dipper will hate you. He hates you!" The voice began shouting at her, and it made her sit up, waking up covered in sweat and her heart pounding in her chest.

Looks like it was time to work on those sweaters.

 _ **AN: Silly boys are so angry at their feelings that they don't see much else other than their dumb hormones. Poor Mabel.**_


	16. Chapter 16

_**AN: Alright, so I was gonna put this out tomorrow instead, but I reeeaally didn't want to edit this chapter tonight and was going to be way too busy to do it tomorrow, so I figured a barely edited early chapter would be better than a way late edited chapter. Hope you enjoy!**_

A full day of talking with Ford about mythical creatures had gone by, and Dipper was relieved that the visit seemed like it was going to be a short one. He loved Ford, and spending time with him was always a blast, but for right then, he had some demons to deal with, and needed the time to work with Bill.

He hadn't spoken to him since the fight, and wasn't really planning on it. The demon was being stubborn, and Dipper refused to feel bad for him. Bill Cipher, all powerful demon, stressed? Dipper scoffed at the idea. There was no way. The guy was too cocky.

"Morning!" Ford was sitting in the kitchen again in the morning, that time just drinking some coffee and eating toast.

"Where's Mabel?" Dipper yawned.

Ford shrugged. "Still asleep? I haven't seen her this morning. She probably needs the time to sleep in. I heard her up last night, fidgeting with her crafts."

Dipper bit at the inside of his cheek. "Yeah, we should probably let her sleep then. She seemed real exhausted yesterday."

He nodded as he took a sip of coffee. "So, I was thinking today we could talk more about your magic. You said you feel, cold before using it?"

"Yeah." He cleared his throat as he sat down at the table and tapped his fingers on it. "I think I can use it without being angry though. Watch." Dipper thought hard about opening all of the cupboards, then snapped his fingers.

They all flew open, a little too harshly, and Dipper flinched at the noise. Strangely his hand hurt a little, and the symbols on his wrists burned a bit. Maybe that was just a bit too much magic for now.

Ford noticed his discomfort immediately, and shook his head. "You need a charm, or something to protect you from the burn it gives your nerves. Dipper, it could kill you if you use it carelessly."

"Understood." He rubbed at his wrists as best as he could through the watch and bracelets he wore to hide the symbols from Ford.

He downed the rest of his coffee, then rubbed his hands together. "Now. While I'm here, I'd also like to talk to this friend of yours. Mabel told me you two were in a bit of a spat, but she also said you two were a lot alike. Maybe talking about the supernatural can help mend your fight."

Dipper cleared his throat and his mouth suddenly felt dry. "W-well, I don't know that he wants to even talk to me right now. Let alone hang out."

"Ah, well that's alright then. That boy that invited me down said that he would very much appreciate it if I made an appearance with him at some point. I'm usually not one for meeting fans, but if he's a friend of yours, I'll make the exception."

Dipper cringed. He wasn't a really a friend by any means, but he would feel bad if he was what stood between him and meeting Ford. That, and it would be a good way to distract "Y-yeah, no we can. I'll ask Claire if they want to hang out."

While he waited for her to respond, he got himself some coffee, and made himself some eggs, trying to think of ways to exclude Bill from Ford's visit.

He could think of plenty excuses, all involving that they were fighting right then and didn't want to see each other, but a thought crossed his mind as he sat down to eat his eggs. What if he just told Ford what was going on?

Maybe he would be able to help in some way? Bill seemed pretty stern about not meeting him, since their history was less than a good one, but maybe it was because he knew that Dipper didn't want to deal with that fight? Perhaps there wouldn't be a fight, if Dipper just talked to him about it before he even saw Bill.

"S-so, did Mabel tell you my friends name?"

Ford leaned back in his chair and nodded. "Bill?"

Dipper chuckled. "Funny, right?"

"Ironic, more like." Ford paused and cleared his throat. "Are you sure it isn't Bill? The demon is sneaky and would play any tricks to get at you. I know we defeated him, but. . . Well, you never know with Bill. He's as stubborn as he is evil."

Dipper thought for a moment. Maybe telling Ford would just mess things up. What if it made Bill even madder at him?

"I can't imagine he would go so far as to faking being a boy that you like though. Doesn't seem like his style."

"W-who said that I like him!?" Dipper looked down at his eggs and poked at them with a fork. Dammit, now there was no way he could tell Ford. He would probably freak out even worse now that he knew that there had been some affection between the two.

Ford laughed. "Your sister. She said that it was complicated between the two of you. Now, I may not have ever been one for relationships, and you may not want my advice, but I do know that what the heart wants, is just what the heart wants. Don't let little silly things get in the way of it. If it's what you want, then I know your sister and I, and Stan, will all love you no matter what." He cleared his throat and stood up, fixing his sweater that Mabel had made him for his visit. "Yes, well, sorry about the corny bit there. Finish eating then we'll see if your friend has responded yet. I'll be in the room, getting ready for the day."

"Thanks, grunkle Ford."

He ruffled Dipper's hair before disappearing out of the kitchen to his room.

That was right. He already had Mabel's support on this, why didn't he think the rest of his family would support him as well?

His phone buzzed, and he saw that Claire agreed to meet them with Ty at a park in the middle of town.

Taking a deep breath, he relaxed and finished his eggs. He would tell Ford later. It would probably interrupt his visit with Ty if he did it now anyway, and Dipper would feel bad if he messed that up.

It was early morning, and Mabel was sitting in her bed, fidgeting with the sweater she had just finished. Now she had one for both demons, and one for Dipper. The weather was getting colder and colder, and it would snow soon, so she figured each of them should have something to keep them warm.

Even though she was glad that she had finished the sweaters, she was becoming concerned about the nightmares that were keeping her from sleeping. At first, she thought that it was just normal nightmares, and that she shouldn't bother anyone with them, but after the last one, she was convinced that it might be one of the things Bill and Dipper were fighting.

After the incident at the mall, she had added Bill's number to her phone, so she sat and stared at it for a moment, thinking about texting him and asking if he could check for a shadow in her head.

" _Are you awake?_ "

She sent the text hoping that it wouldn't wake him up from anything important in the dreamscape, and stared at the screen while she waited for a response.

" _Yes. Is something the matter?_ "

"Oh thank god, he responded," she chuckled to herself.

" _What are the nightmares like that those shadow thingys cause?_ "

" _Are you having nightmares?_ "

" _Yeah. They're really intense and are making it hard to sleep._ "

There was a five-or-so minute pause between the texts, before Bill finally responded.

" _Meet us at the park near my apartment. As soon as possible._ "

" _On my way._ "

This would be perfect. She would leave before Dipper or Ford even woke up, and it would be a great time to give everyone their sweaters.

After getting dressed, she took the car and drove quickly to the park, excited to give them their sweaters. That was one thing she always found a lot of joy in; making sweaters or clothes for people, then seeing their faces when they got them. She was hoping that even though they were demons, Bill and Clyde would still enjoy their gifts.

The park was a little chilly, but the air felt really nice and crisp, and it helped wake Mabel up a little bit.

She took in a deep breath and scanned the area, seeing that Bill and Clyde were sitting at a table, waving her over.

Skipping happily, she made her way over to them quickly, and presented them with the sweaters.

Bill's was of course yellow, with a brick pattern of a slightly darker yellow, and had a black bow-tie design stitched into it just below the collar.

"Whoa, Star, this is cool. It must've taken you forever!" Bill immediately peeled his jacket off, and slipped the sweater over his T-shirt. "And it's so soft too!"

"You're just being nice," she giggled.

Clyde's was just like Bill's but purple, and had black at the end of the sleeves coming up like fire.

"I-I don't really know what your demon form looks like, and I've only ever seen you with the whole, fire hands thing, so I just kind of guessed and made yours like this."

He stared at it for a moment with wide eyes. "I like it. . . thanks."

Bill elbowed him and slipped his jacket back on over the sweater. "Put it on you jerk. She was nice enough to make it for you, now wear it."

Clyde nodded and did the same as Bill, putting the sweater on under his jacket.

"They're a bit big, sorry. You guys are smaller than I thought you'd be." She chuckled and sat down on the other side of the table, putting her elbows on it so that she could lean forward.

"So, nightmares. Would you say that they're some of the worst you can imagine?"

Her smile faded and she nodded. "It's always Dipper telling me that he hates me," she said quietly. "They always seem so real too."

"Definitely worth checking out." Bill got up and walked around the table, then straddled the picnic-table-like seat next to her so that he was facing her. "Alright, close your eyes and relax. When I did this with Pine Tree he freaked out, and it works better if the person is calm."

"Okay." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When Bill's hand touched her face she flinched back a bit, but relaxed when she felt his forehead press onto hers.

There was silence for a moment, the only noise really being the wind, since it was too cold out for most people to go out to the park. Finally after the silence, Bill lifted away and ran his hand through his hair.

"There's definitely a shadow in there. We'll have to get it first thing tonight."

"It won't like, hurt me will it? And I don't know if I can fall asleep. . ." Mabel looked down at the table and played with the bottom of one of her sleeves.

Bill chuckled and stood up to stretch. "I'll find a way to put you to sleep tonight. I can't really stay the night with Ford there, but for you I can teleport back and forth. It's pretty important for Stars not to fall out of the sky, so we can't have you too exhausted to stay up there."

"You're made of cheese Bill," she giggled. "Maybe that's why you're yellow!"

Clyde let out a loud laugh but silence when Bill glared at him.

"Bill! Mabel!" Claire was running up to them, Ford, Dipper, and Ty following behind her.

Bill glanced back and zipped his jacket up over the sweater. "Sorry, don't mean to cover your work. It just will tip Sixer off."

Mabel nodded. "I understand."

Dipper nearly froze when Bill turned around, and when he saw that Clyde was there too, he nearly passed out. There wasn't much he could do to hide the demons from Ford now.

With everyone around the table, Dipper thought quickly and grabbed Bill by the arm. "We're going to talk for a minute." He pulled him away from the table a bit, making sure that they were far enough away that no one could hear them.

"Pine Tree, what are you doing here? Isn't it a little early?" Bill looked nervous, and seemed like he was preparing himself to be yelled at.

Dipper took a deep breath and nodded. "It's way too early to be dealing with this. What are you guys doing here?"

"Ah-ah, I asked first," he teased.

"Now? You're making jokes now? You realize Ford may actually try and kill you? And what happens if you lose this body, hm?" Dipper snapped.

Bill bit at his lip and looked away from him. "Sorry. Force of habit. Star wanted to meet us here because she has a shadow in her head."

Dipper frowned at Bill's facial expression. He looked sad almost. "And there you go again, trying to make me feel bad for you. This is not the freaking time for your games!"

"I'm not playing games Pine Tree! I can feel upset alright? I'm not always a happy douchebag like you think I am." Bill looked like he was getting red in the face. "Besides, did you not just hear me about Star?"

"I did, I just know that we can't deal with it until later anyway. Right now I'm more concerned about you surviving long enough to actually help her!"

Mabel stared at Bill and Dipper as they very clearly fought, and tried to divert the others attention from them. "So! What brings you guys out on this chilly morning?"

Ty, who was staring at Ford with a huge grin and adoring eyes, excitedly pointed to Ford. "We got to meet Ford! Oh man, Ford I have to show you the research I've done!" He flipped open the notebook that he had brought with him, and sat down with it.

Ford sat across from him and listened patiently as he started to spout about the symbols and spells he had learned from Ford's writing.

Clyde cleared his throat and stood up carefully, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. "I-I'm gonna go make sure they're okay."

"There's no way Sixer could even stand a chance against me. And it's not like I'm going to tell him what I am, so as long as you or Clyde don't mess it up, then we should be fine," Bill snapped back.

Dipper was getting frustrated. He wasn't expecting Bill to react so. . . so humanly about it. He seemed legitimately upset and flustered. "You know I wouldn't outright say anything to Ford. Not unless I felt like it would help."

"Well, it wouldn't. So keep it to yourself."

Clyde nearly stumbled over to them, and chuckled nervously. "Is the old married couple done having a fit now? 'Cause there's two nerds over there talking about a certain demon who tried to end the world."

"Right," Bill huffed. "You and I can go and just say that Pine Tree and I are still too mad at each other, then the nerds can stay here and talk about me all they want." He stormed off towards the group, and Clyde and Dipper followed, both weirded out by Bill's frustration.

He really didn't seem like one to get so upset over things like this, and it made Dipper start to wonder if maybe he had really offended Bill. Technically he had called him an emotionless asshole, and it wasn't really fair of him to have done that. He didn't know if Bill really did feel that way.

Crap, now he felt bad. He couldn't exactly apologize right then though, so it would have to wait.

Before Bill or any of the boys could speak, Mabel hushed them and nodded towards Ty. "He's showing Ford some sort of spell or something real quick."

"Uh, okay, here goes. Bare with me, my Latin is a little rusty. I'm going to make my book disappear for a second. F-facere, uh, symbolis. . . evanescere?"

In a split second, faster than Dipper could even blink, he felt a hand pushing him, and he stumbled back onto the grass, landing on his rear.

A flash of light followed, and engulfed the area around the table, barely missing Dipper and Clyde, who also seemed to have been pushed back.

Once the light cleared, Dipper's heart dropped.

Bill was lying on the ground, completely unconscious.

"What the hell just happened?" Claire was nudging Ty, who had collapsed onto the table. "The symbols in his notebook are gone! Like every single one of them!"

"He made that happen!" Clyde growled. He was holding his left arm, and looked angry. "The idiot did a spell that makes all symbols vanish, not just his stupid notebook! Does he know how dangerous that is? Removing a symbol can put people's bodies into shock!"

Dipper gasped. Bill had just gotten all of his symbols removed at once. Not only was he probably detached from the body then, the body was also probably freaking out about the sudden lack of Bill in it.

"Why did it knock them out? Ty didn't have any markings. Did Bill?" Ford stood and crossed his arms, looking at Dipper with a bit of a glare. "And why did he push you out of the way?"

Clyde waved his good arm to bring the attention to him. "The stupid kid used magic and it probably tired his body out, he should be fine." He looked at Dipper and his face changed from anger to worry. "Bill however is in the Mindscape with no way to defend himself, and is probably sticking out like a magical beacon. Baltzy will rip into him within seconds, I have to go help him. You need to stay here and start remarking Bill's body. The sooner he gets it back the better."

"O-okay. I'll need the book though." Dipper stumbled over to Bill's body and got the marking pen from his pocket.

"Where is it? Teleporting back and forth will knock me out anyway, so this will be good."

"My room, on my desk."

Clyde nodded and looked as if he were reading some invisible map in front of him, his eyes darting around frantically. "Okay. When I get back, start doing his marks right away. Just do the basic ones to get him back, we'll do the other ones later. Once you're done, wake him up. Do not let him stay asleep once his body starts breathing again."

Dipper nodded. "Understood."

Clyde vanished, and was only gone for a second before he reappeared and handed the book to Dipper before falling over next to Bill.

"Dipper, what is going on?" Ford seemed angry, but Dipper didn't really care right then.

He might lose Bill. If he didn't hurry, he was going to die. He wouldn't have anymore unwanted cuddling, there would be no more unwanted kisses, and he would be stuck trying to save everyone by himself.

"I'll explain later! Mabel, hold this book open for me, please." He unzipped Bill's jacket, revealing the sweater Mabel had made him, then lifted it so that his chest was exposed.

He did what he could from memory first. He had seen Bill shirtless enough times that some of the symbols stuck in his memory, which was awesome because he was able to do most of the ones around the large symbol on his chest before Mabel even flipped the book open for him.

"What page?" She was flustered as well. She didn't fully understand the danger Bill was in, but based off of the frantic movements Dipper was making, sure knew what had happened was far from good.

Claire was trying to wake up Ty, and Ford stood quietly, watching as Dipper used the pen to draw the symbols on Bill.

"Just, uh," Dipper cringed. "Flip it like two more pages."

Mabel nodded and did as she was told, careful to only flip two of the pages.

Looking back and forth at the book, Dipper eventually made enough of the markings that it looked like Bill's body should be breathing. But it wasn't. "I-I'm missing something, what am I missing?" Dipper grabbed the book from Mabel and flipped through the pages quickly, searching for something to make the body live again. "Duh," Dipper smacked his forehead as he remembered the symbol.

Life. Bill had even pointed it out to him at one point, how could he forget?

Once the pen lifted from his chest, Bill's body took in a deep breath.

"Yes!" Dipper grabbed Bill's face and smacked him a little harshly, making sure to wake him up.

Bill's eyes shot open, and he began to shake violently. "P-Pine Tree," he gasped "wake up Clyde, now."

Dipper pulled Bill into his arms and held him while he shook, and Mabel woke up Clyde by nudging his shoulders.

"Okay, now that you've pulled them from the Mindscape, we should be sending them back," Ford growled. "Why would you not have told me about this Dipper?"

With Clyde awake but hurt, and Bill still shaking horribly while grabbing at Dipper's jacket, Dipper decided it was not the time to fight any kind of fight.

"Look, had I thought about it like a week ago, I would have. I didn't know Bill seriously needed my help, but now I do. There's a demon trying to use people's nightmares as fuel for his magic, and once he's powerful enough, he's going to start trapping everyone in the Mindscape to have a constant magic flow. I've been helping Bill, since he needs a human to with him to block his magic from the demon."

"How do you know he isn't tricking you? You know exactly how manipulative he is!" Ford crossed his arms and stared down at Dipper.

Oh how Dipper hated seeing Ford so disappointed in him. His stare was enough to cut straight into Dipper right then. "Does he look like he's joking right now?"

Bill tried to hide his face a little in Dipper's jacket, not wanting to be seen in this awful state.

Ford took a deep, shaky breath and pinched the bridge of his nose just above his glasses. "Look, Dipper, if you really think this is what's right, and if you really think this is going to help people. . . then, fine. I'll be around if this backfires, which for all our sakes, I hope it doesn't, but I think it may be time I go back home. I'll be a phone call away." He stormed off, looking more disappointed than anything, which cut Dipper deeply, but he had Bill to worry about right then.

"Are you okay?" He moved his arms back a bit so that he could see Bill's face a little bit better.

He was still shaking, but much less, and he forced himself to sit up. "Fine," he breathed. "Did you and Clyde make it out okay?"

Dipper nodded. "Thanks for pushing us out of the way. I'm. . . I'm uh, glad you're okay."

Bill smirked and cleared his throat, then stood up and adjusted his clothes. "Well, thank you, for marking me back up. I can feel you missed a few, but I'm alive, so I suppose that's what matters." His gaze drifted over to Ty, who was still out cold, and he laughed. "Dumb kid needs to learn not to spout random stuff while touching symbols."

"My arm got caught in the blast. I can't move it without the binding symbols." Clyde was rubbing his head with one arm, and looked like he was trying to move the other.

"Star, do you mind if we take you home, then go back to my place? We need to fix ourselves up some more before we can fight the shadow in your head."

"Actually," Claire started "Mabel, do you mind staying with me and explaining some things, and helping me with Ty? I can take you home."

Mabel nodded and tossed Dipper the car keys. "I'm okay with staying for a bit bro-bro. Go take care of your demons."

The car ride back was silent. Dipper still didn't know how to deal with Bill, and how he acted towards him. What he did know though, was that he was glad that Bill was okay, and that it made him feel really strange to hold Bill while he was shaking.

Once inside, the two demons sat on the couch and waited for Dipper to get the pen out. Clyde just rolled up his sleeves, while Bill took all his tops off, so that he could examine which symbols were still needed.

"You did a great job for someone under pressure," he chuckled nervously.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Which ones are missing?"

Once Bill walked him through everything, and he was done marking the demons up, they decided to be lazy for the rest of the day.

Clyde ended up falling asleep on the couch after watching some shows on a streaming website, which Bill had begrudgingly agreed to get for him, and Dipper decided to read more of Bill's notes on the symbols.

He was very proud that he had been able to do so many off of the top of his head, but wanted to be sure he knew as many as possible. Just in case something like that ever happened again.

Bill eventually joined him in the room, and laid on the bed. "So," he sighed.

"So?" Dipper looked up from the papers and blinked at the demon.

"So. Uh, thanks again. For saving me. Not one of my prouder moments, but, uh. . .thanks."

Dipper set the papers on the desk and sighed. "This is weird. You're acting weird, Bill. What's going on with you? Like, really? Don't lie to me."

Bill hesitated to answer, but eventually sighed and spit it out. "I don't know how to be human. At all. It's weird, it's making me feel things, and for the first time in a very, very long time, I was scared today. Had that blast hit you, you would've probably gone into shock and had a much harder time recovering than I did."

"Y-you were worried about me?"

"Of course I was," he mumbled.

He smiled and got out of the chair, stretching his arms out. "Well, thanks to you, I'm okay."

"And I'm glad for it."

The two were quiet for a moment, a thick awkward silence filling the room.

Dipper debated what he wanted to do next. Should he. . .comfort Bill? He did seem a little upset still, and Dipper was a little more convinced of Bill's emotions existing now.

With a large, shaky sigh, Dipper made his way over to the bed and laid down next to Bill. "Y-you can do the cuddle thing. If you want."

Bill stared at him for a moment with narrow eyes. "What're you playing at?"

He shrugged and sat up, pretending to get up and leave. "I guess if you don't want to, I can jus-"

Bill sat up too and interrupted him with a kiss, even though Mabel had said to take it slower. "We're cuddling. And, I don't know if I mean those. They're just nice. So I like to do them."

Dipper nodded and laid back down, letting Bill pull him into a hug. "I guess that's okay. Just, maybe not in front of people, for now at least?"

"Can do, Pine Tree."

 _ **AN: At least they aren't fighting anymore :p**_


	17. Chapter 17

_**AN: Hey! I'm so sorry about how long it took to get this out. It's not even that long of a chapter, I just got sidetracked by my other works, and life in general DX**_

 _ **I have more time to put into this fic now, so hopefully I can do what I want with it. I just need to remember to update it a little more frequently XD**_

 _ **Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It sets up the next chapter, which is going to be filled to the brim with goodies x3**_

Once they were ready for bed, Clyde put in his room and Bill and Dipper in their usual sleepwear, they got into a plan for attacking the shadow in Mabel's head.

Bill had agreed to teleport back and forth from their houses quickly, so that he could put Mabel to sleep without having to deal with Ford, who, once calmed down, decided he wanted to stay longer, so that he can keep an eye on the demons.

"I'll be right back, be ready to fall asleep. I can put you out just before I go out." Bill was tracing a hand down Dipper's face, playing with the light fuzz of facial hair he had.

"Put some pants on before you just appear in Mabel's room," he chuckled. "I don't think she'd appreciate you showing up in just boxers."

After an exaggerated eye roll, Bill reluctantly put some pajama bottoms on. "There. But you owe me in the morning."

Before Dipper could reply, Bill vanished, and was gone for only a minute. He reappeared back in the bed, next to Dipper, and put him out quickly so that he couldn't question him.

It shocked Dipper to find himself lying in snow, surrounded by the blackened trees and unusual sounds coming from the sky. He sat up and saw Bill looking down at him, staring as if he was trying to figure something out.

"I think you're having a nightmare. Just a normal one though. I don't feel any shadows around. Let's get out of here." With a snap of his fingers, they appeared back at the doors, and Clyde was waiting impatiently, leaning against Mabel's door.

"Game plan?" he asked annoyed. The two left him out a bit during the planning, and he was less than happy about it.

Bill put his hand on her door and closed his eyes. He mumbled something to himself then opened his eyes, looking at Dipper. "There's more than one. Baltzy is trying to hit close to home. I don't think he has us pinned exactly, but he's definitely getting close. We need to start picking up the pace on shadows."

Dipper nodded. "What more can I do to help?"

"Just do what I ask when I ask. You're going to have to keep trusting me, at least on things dealing with the shadows. Clyde, I need you to change as well. We're going in there swinging. Pine Tree, find Star, hold her and keep her asleep. Okay?"

"Okay," Clyde and Dipper said in unison.

The two demons took a little while to change, but when they did, Dipper became a little uneasy. What if Mabel woke up when she saw them? She had only seen Clyde in his demon form, and the one in reality wasn't nearly as frightening as the one in the Mindscape.

Bill opened the door, and Clyde rushed in after him. Dipper stumbled in after them, and looked around for any sign of Mabel.

She was sitting on the floor, her knees pushed up so that she could hide her face behind them, and she was sobbing.

The room was dark, and when Bill and Clyde flared up their fire, Dipper could see why it was so dark. There were shadows, everywhere. There had to be at least fifty on each side of them.

"Take left!" Bill shouted over at Clyde.

Chaos broke out, and Dipper lost sight of Mabel. He had to keep her safe, and asleep, so he had to think of a way to bring her away from the fighting.

"Mabel!" he shouted over the growls and tearing noises. "This is a dream, you can do anything remember? Fly up!" Dipper pushed himself upwards, and looked down at the demons as they fought the shadows.

Bill was clearly a lot stronger than Clyde was, since he was able to take out three or so shadows with one blow, where Clyde only took out one per swing. The shadows were still overpowering them though, and Mabel was still nowhere to be seen.

"Mabel?" Dipper let himself fall back down into the fighting, and pushed his way past a few shadows to where he had seen her crying. She wasn't there, but he did catch a glimpse of her as she ran towards Bill's blue fire. It was probably all she could think of to do, but Dipper knew that getting in Bill's way while he was fighting was a bad idea.

He charged after her, trying to shout her name to get her to look back at him.

She stopped just as she saw Bill, and froze at the sight of him.

The world around them shook a little, and Dipper could feel it start to crumble around them.

"Mabel! Stay asleep! This is the only way they can help you!" Dipper shouted over the fighting and rumbling.

She turned and looked Dipper in the eyes, and the world stopped shaking. "Dipper? Is it really you?"

He ran over to her and pulled her into a tight hug, letting his hands get tangled in her long hair. "It's me Mabel, you're okay."

"Do you hate me Dipper?"

He pulled back and looked at her face.

Her cheeks were soaked in tears, and her eyes were bloodshot. Even though this wasn't the real, physical Mabel, her pain seemed so real, and it pained Dipper to see her this sad.

"Why would I hate you? Mabel, you're my sister. My twin! I don't think it's even allowed for me to hate you," he chuckled.

A smile appeared on her face and she nodded. "I just. . . you kept saying it. It was so real."

"It's okay Mabel. It was just a shadow. I would never say that to you."

One of the shadows brushed up against her and it made her yelp. The world around them shook again and Dipper tried to hush her.

"I know they're freaky, but they can't hurt you as long as you aren't afraid of them. Bill and Clyde can do this, so long as you stay asleep, okay?"

She nodded again and shut her eyes. "Just tell me when it's okay, 'kay?"

"Of course."

Dipper held onto her and watched as Bill and Clyde tore into the shadows. Eventually all of the shadows had been taken care of, and the two demons were left huffing and seemed to be glowing.

Before Dipper could ask them if they were okay, they vanished.

"They must've woken up." Dipper turned to Mabel, but just as she was about to speak, she disappeared as well.

A strange noise brought Dipper back to the real world, and he turned to see Bill next to him, coughing.

"Are you okay?" Dipper sat up and rubbed at his back. It was almost like Bill's body was humming, and Dipper could feel the magic running through him like electricity. And the coughs were anything but light, and he could see that they were hurting him.

"Mm," he mumbled between coughs. After a few more, he took a deep breath and sat up as well. "That was just a lot of magic to take in at once. I'll be okay."

"Thank you for doing that for her." Dipper looked away from Bill and rubbed his eyes. It was about an hour from when they needed to get ready for school, and he was annoyed that he only got a few hours of sleep.

Bill nodded and cleared his throat. "She's done a lot for me. I would do it again if she asked."

A strange feeling went through Dipper's chest, and he bit at his bottom lip. He wasn't supposed to be dealing with these things with Bill. It was just supposed to be him helping get rid of the other demon, not feeling jealous of Bill speaking fondly of someone else.

"L-look Bill, this... I'm confused, right now. I just. This is weird." He looked back up at Bill, who looked like he had froze midway to grabbing Dipper's shoulder.

He looked down and let his hand fall. "Yeah. It is. I'm confused too. I don't know if I mean all these things because being human is so..." He looked back up at Dipper and shrugged.

They stared at each other for a moment before Dipper sighed. "I don't want this to be a fight, and I don't want to not be around you, 'cause I think-"

A loud banging noise coming from the hallway made him pause, and they both looked back at the door.

"Bill, please come let me out, I feel so sick," Clyde whined.

The demon hopped off the bed quickly, and went to help Clyde.

Dipper stared after him and bit his cheek. What was he doing? He couldn't create that rift between them right now. The better they got along, the easier it was to fight. Not to mention that he wasn't sure if he wanted the affection to stop.

"Ugh," he mumbled. He was confused as to what he wanted. It was frustrating. Should he just enjoy Bill while he was around and let himself fall for the demon? And if he did, how would he handle it when Bill left? Would Bill leave when this was done?

"Pine Tree, come here," Bill shouted from the other room. "Bring the pen."

Dipper went slowly, still deep in the mass of questions swimming around his head.

Clyde was shaking, and trying to lay flat on his bed, while Bill was looking down at him, clearly concerned.

"He's not used to having this much magic. He needs a few more things to help his body contain it. Think you can handle it?"

Dipper stared at Bill for a moment, realizing that Bill himself still looked pretty ill. "I think you should go rest some more. I can help Clyde. Your body has been through a lot, and needs the rest."

Bill stared back at him and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Yes sir," he said in a goofy voice.

That brought a smile to Dipper's face. It definitely wasn't the time to break anything off with Bill. Even if it was just until the shadows were taken care of, Dipper wanted to enjoy Bill being around. There was no way he was going to admit that to Bill, and he wasn't just going to be goo in his hands, but he was definitely going to be more open about Bill's affection.

"Wake me up when we need to get going to class. Clyde can stay home today and rest. I can't waste my magic on fixing him if he wears this body too thin, so he needs to rest." Bill paused as he passed Dipper and smiled as he nudged his arm. "Thanks Pine Tree."

Dipper smiled back at him, and went to Clyde's side, examining where a good place for a few more power symbols could go. Once he settled on a spot on his back, he held him down gently and started making the marks.

It was nice that he at least knew these ones by heart, and it made the strain in his eyes from reading feel completely worth it.

"Cipher won't be here forever you know." Clyde's voice cut into Dipper's good mood like a jagged knife.

"What do you mean?" He tried to stay focused on the marking, but his mind went completely off track to what Clyde had said. "Like, he'll leave when the shadows are gone?"

He was quiet for a moment, taking in a few deep breaths to calm his body down, then nodded. "It's doubtful that he'll stay. Hell if he really is plotting against you, then he may just leave to watch your little human heart shatter."

"It would not shatter," he mumbled.

Clyde made a pfft sound and laughed through a cough. "Please, I'm not blind. I may not be able to read Cipher very well, but I can see it on your face like a giant sticker. 'I'm emotionally attached to Bill Cipher', is what it says."

Dipper scoffed and quickly finished drawing the symbol onto him so that he could speak with him some more. "What, uh," he cleared his throat. "What might make him stay?"

The demon let out a loud laugh and took in a few more breaths before speaking. "Oh, you poor thing. This is Bill Cipher we're talking about. Even if he did actually like you, he likely wouldn't give up being a free demon. I mean, does it really seem like he's enjoying being stuck in these meat sacks? I know I hate it. They don't work right and are extremely flawed."

Though it hurt to admit, Clyde was right. Bill had mentioned multiple times that he hated being human. "I couldn't force him to stay. He does seem to hate being this way."

Clyde hummed for a moment and smiled at Dipper with a fire behind his eyes that said he was thinking of something Dipper probably wouldn't like. "Maybe, just maybe, there is one way to get Cipher to stay."

Dipper narrowed his eyes at the demon. "What might that be?"

"Well," Clyde sat up and looked like he was already feeling much better "say someone taught you the ways of soul flirtation. If Cipher is wanting your whole being, both body and soul, then he might be willing to wait out a human lifespan for you. Right now it's likely he's only showing you affection because of the chemicals in his and your brains. But if it were your souls that were attracted, then he would be way more likely to stay."

"Uh huh. And, who might teach me this, 'soul flirtation'?" Dipper knew where this was going. Clyde wanted to make a deal. And, even though it probably wasn't smart to make one with him, Dipper would at least hear out what this one might pertain. It would be nice to let himself get attached to Bill, and not have to worry about him just leaving once the threat was gone.

"Me, of course," he purred as he inched closer to Dipper. They were sitting on his bed, and Dipper felt a little uncomfortable. Clyde seemed all too excited for this deal.

Inching away a little, Dipper nodded. "And what would you want in return for doing so?"

Clyde leaned forward a little, his smile looking more and more mischievous as they spoke. "I want use this to get back at Cipher for not inviting me to his party. Meaning I'll use more aggressive tactics, such as jealousy, to help you win him over. Just little jabs here and there to remind him that I'm not as lame as he thinks I am. And that I do not mess up deals."

"Hm." Dipper thought it over for a moment. That didn't seem like bad terms. He could handle Clyde being flirty with him. The demon never kept his personal bubble in tact anyway, so it wasn't like much would change.

"Aw, c'mon, I made it simple for the both of us. I was going to go big and just take Cipher out completely, but seeing as how things are a little different now, I might as well just do the little things." A dim black fire lit up Clyde's hand as he loosely held it out for Dipper to shake. "Just light your fire and shake, and I'll help make sure Cipher stays once the shadows are gone. All you have to do is let me make him jealous every so often."

He chewed at his bottom lip and sucked in a deep breath. It was an easy enough deal. "Fine." He let the magic flow to his hand and the yellow fire engulfed his fingers.

This hand shake felt way different than the one with Bill had. Sure, it could've been since it was with a different demon, but having his own magic involved in the deal made it feel… tighter. Like he could feel a physical rubberband between he and Clyde, holding bits of their magic together.

"Good! Now, sweet dreams!"

"Wha-" Dipper felt himself being pulled down by Clyde, and he felt his eyelids slip closed as he fell to the bed next to the demon.

About an hour later, Bill groaned as he felt his bed vibrate from Dipper's cell phone. It was strange that Dipper hadn't made it back to bed yet, but Bill figured he had probably just stayed up, and was just waiting for Bill to get up.

Stranger still, Dipper wasn't in the kitchen or living room area, and no one seemed to be in the bathroom.

"Pine Tree?" Bill slowly opened Clyde's door, since that was the only other place to check. If he wasn't in there, then that meant he left Bill there, which would've been annoying, but he would be okay with skipping a school day.

Passed out on the bed, Clyde and Dipper were in a half cuddle, Dipper being sprawled out, and Clyde having an arm tossed over his torso.

Bill cleared his throat loudly and nudged Dipper's shoulder. "School, maybe?"

Dipper opened his eyes, feeling like someone had hit him with a brick. "Uh, Bill?" He swallowed the film that had covered his mouth and looked beside him.

Ugh, Clyde had taken the jealousy thing too seriously. He didn't want Bill to think he was completely ditching him for Clyde.

"Yeah. Were we still going to school?" His voice sounded like he was a tiny bit annoyed, but generally seemed unphased.

Dipper nodded. "Lemme toss on some clothes." He rolled out of the bed and made his way back to Bill's room, where he quickly pulled on the outfit he had brought over. He made a mental note to maybe just start leaving clothes and stuff he needed in Bill's room, so that he didn't have to worry about it.

Bill was standing in the doorway and idly messed with his fingernails. "So, finally had a bit of a sleepover with Clyde now, huh?"

He couldn't mention that it wasn't by choice, could he? No, then the whole jealousy thing wouldn't happen. "Yeah, we talked about symbols and I just drifted off after a little while."

The demon nodded and clicked his tongue. "Let's try to keep the drifting off in my bed, 'kay?"

Dipper looked at Bill for a moment, trying to read his facial expression.

Great, Bill was definitely the jealous type. Maybe that deal hadn't been as simple as he thought it would be.

 _ **AN: Dipper's no good at reading the fine print of things. Hopefully this won't backfire TOO badly...**_


	18. Chapter 18

_**AN:Yay, I updated this fic!**_

 _ **A very big thank you to the one who edited this.. Bill Cipher himself! Well, okay not Alex, or an actual demon, but ya know. Just go search the name on Youtube, have fun ;P**_

 _ **(But in all srsness tho, thank you for editing this anime_is_kawaii, you're a big help! :D)**_

 _ **Anyway, sorry this took forever to come out. This story is lost on my brain these days, and is honestly a bit difficult to spit out. I am getting a better grip on it now, but it's still taking some time to come back to me, so I thank you for your patients! :D**_

 _ **I hope you enjoy! :3**_

School was weird that following day. Dipper had noticed Bill acting a little different, with slight changes to his personality, and overall looking a bit afflicted. He didn't doubt that the last few days had taken a bit of a toll on the demon, and he wanted to find a way to comfort him.

At lunch, he found himself sitting alone at the table for a little while, until Bill and Mabel came and sat down by him, both looking a little smug.

"Hey, how've you both been feeling?" Dipper was hoping to get straight answers from both of them, since Bill would likely lie to make himself seem tougher, and Mabel would lie so that she wouldn't worry him.

"Better bro-bro. It feels like the mental fog has been clearing up nicely. I plan on sleeping like a rock tonight!" She said cheerfully and slumped down into the seat in front of dipper and smiled softly. "No need to fret over little ol' me," she said with a wink and poking her cheeks with her index finger and wiggled them a little.

They both looked at Bill, who sat right next to Dipper, making sure to leave a decent space between the two.

"I'm tired, to be honest. But, nothing a little sleep can't fix. Unfortunately, we can't take it too easy tonight. Notice how many tired kids there are today?" he said, gesturing an arm to show the burned out teens.

Dipper looked around the lunchroom carefully, and suddenly became aware of how lifeless and worn out the school felt. "Huh? Wow, a lot of people look exhausted." His gaze reverted back to Bill, who was staring at him. "What?" he questioned.

"Nothing." He looked at Mabel and smiled. "I'm glad that you're at least shadow free. I apologize that he targeted you like that."

Mabel put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "It's not your fault that there's a psycho demon trying to eat people's sleep, or whatever," she said, brushing it off like it was nothing.

"True, but still. He's targeting those close to us to try and pinpoint me. The sooner I get snuffed out, the sooner he can take over the Mindscape." Bill nudged Dipper's arm and smiled at him. "I'm shocked you haven't had one get into your head. Of course, it's a little hard to do that, when you move around as much as you do in the Mindscape."

Dipper half smiled back and averted his gaze from Bill. He could feel that the air between them was a bit thick, and didn't want to pull anything off just yet with him. Dipper wanted to stay on Bills good side so that they could both get over the morning without incident.

"Well, I have somewhere to be, so I will leave you two to it." Mabel booped Dipper on the nose and nearly skipped off.

"At least she's in a good mood," Dipper mumbled.

Bill nodded and looked down at the table.

"Sorry about this morning?" It ended up coming out more of a question then an apology, because Dipper really wasn't sure if Bill was actually upset or not.

The demon shrugged and tapped at the table with his index finger. "No big deal. I know Clyde can be… well, Clyde." He huffed a little at his remark.

"Okay," was all Dipper could say. He really wasn't sure what his next step with Bill should be. Clyde hadn't exactly told him what "soul flirting" entailed, so he figured maybe he should just be normal that day, and not worry about any flirting of any kind.

The thought of it all made him chuckle to himself. Dipper Pines, wanting to flirt with great and mighty Bill Cipher. What a strange turn of events this had become for him.

"What's so funny kid?" Bill questioned, leaning into Dipper for a moment, jostling him just enough to grab his attention before moving back away.

Dipper looked up at Bill and met his gaze for a moment, mouth open like an idiot while he tried to think of a lie to say.

"Uh, j-just, something I say on the internet e-earlier today. Nothing exciting I promise," he said waving his hands up in defense.

Bill pinned his attention to Dipper for a moment, and it made him squirm a little in his seat.

"I refuse to go on the internet after that mean trick you played on me," he chuckled, finally breaking their little staring contest.

"It was not a 'mean trick'. I simply didn't want to tell you about it. Besides, I'm sure you seeing it jogged your memory just fine."

Bill lightly punched him in the arm and laughed.

Dipper felt his face get hot and his chest felt like someone put a block of cement on it.

Uh oh. This was worse than he thought it was. But, that wasn't a bad thing. At least, Dipper hoped it wasn't. The lunch bell rang and everyone started to head out to go to their next class.

When Dipper entered the History class, the seats weren't pushed into groups, so neither of them spoke much, and Dipper found himself daydreaming about what it would be like if Bill stayed.

Would he just keep things the way that they were, the only difference being them not fighting shadows? What if something did change?

Dipper couldn't think of what the change could be, but it made him antsy all at the same.

After class, Bill met him in the hall and talked to him about class as if they were totally normal students, trying to get a good grade.

"You okay kid?" He asked putting a hand on his head, brushing throw his brown, long locks.

Dipper blinked and realized he had been staring at Bill.

When did those golden eyes become such interesting things to look at? And why was Bill's hair something Dipper _really_ wanted to play with?

"Pine Tree?" Bill asked, taking his hand of his head and moved it to his shoulders, lightly shaking him. "You okay?"

"Huh? O-oh, yeah, uh, uhm, I gotta go into class. Go to class." Dipper corrected himself turning away quickly and walked away, even though they shared the next class.

God, Bill probably saw right through him. How freaking _embarrassing_ that his once arch nemesis was now making him all dumb in the head.

His next class went by quickly, due to the fact his teacher only lectured them all, telling them about how everyone was falling the class, not putting enough effort, except for Dipper because he was a A+ student, as usual. This went on until the bell ring and then the two left for the parking lot.

Bill walked next to him again, mostly keeping to himself.

"So, h-how'd your day go?" Dipper said getting into the driver's seat of his car while they waited for Mabel to come out.

Bill climbed in the back, looking like he was thinking about something else entirely. "It was alright," he mumbled.

Dipper nodded and tapped at the steering wheel. ' _God where was Mabel? And why did he feel so awkward with Bill in the car with him now?'_

"You okay Pine Tree? You've been a little weird today. I hope you don't think I'm mad or anything. Just, try not to let Clyde get too touchy feely. That guy will take advantage of you the second he feels like he can."

Welp, Dipper had already figured that much. Especially since he was stuck in a deal with him now. One that would likely lead to more hate and discontent than anything.

"I'm fine. And yeah, I get it. He's a demon, shouldn't trust him too much." Dipper caught himself and cleared his throat. "N-not that I don't trust you. To a certain extent. You know."

Bill glared at Dipper in the rearview mirror and raised an eyebrow at him.

Before he could respond, Mabel hopped into the passenger seat and huffed. "Alright, talked to all of my friends, and now you can take me home! Ford will probably want you two to stay for just a minute so you can talk. After all he _is_ staying for you Dipper." She glanced back at Bill and smiled softly. "Don't worry he's just worried about you being around us. I bet you two could convince him that he shouldn't be."

Dipper looked to Bill to see how he would react. He was all for trying to get on Ford's good side again, but he knew Bill might not be as eager to talk to him.

"You sure Sixer isn't going to try and shoot me?" Bill crossed his arms and looked down at the seat, chewing on his bottom lip.

 _'What was he thinking about?'_ Dipper wanted to ask, but knew it would have to wait.

"Ford wouldn't dare hurt you. Not while I'm around," she beamed.

"Alright. Then let's go see IQ," Bill said, giving an inaudible mumble afterwards.

Dipper drove home, hoping to get a little alone time with Bill after all of this so that he could ask about what he was thinking. Maybe Bill was deciding on what his plans are after the shadows were taken care of. If so, Dipper wanted to try and coerce Bill to stay.

When they got there, Mabel ran into the house first, probably to tell Ford that the boys were there, and to warn him about not trying to hurt Bill.

Bill stayed close to Dipper, almost as if he was actually a little afraid of what might happen.

Dipper and Bill entered the house and made their way to the kitchen.

"Dipper!" Ford was sitting at the kitchen table, Mabel standing next to him almost defensively. "Cipher." His smile dropped and he glared at the demon, stabbing holes at him mentally.

"Been a good while _Sixer_. How ya been?" he asked cocking an eyebrow. Bill's usual snarky demeanor was suddenly back in spades, and Dipper felt his stomach churn.

What if Bill was putting on a mask so that Dipper would work with him? Or was the snark the mask?

"Well. I've been well," he retorted with a similar amount of sass.

Bill sat down across from him and a smile spread on his lips, one that made Dipper's stomach both tighten and fill with butterflies. "I think you and I have a longer overdue chat awaiting us." He looked to Dipper and Mabel and lightly waved his hand. "Would you be so kind as to leave us to it for a moment?"

Dipper could see a small, golden flame flicker in his eyes and felt chills going through his entire body.

" _What's he planning to talk about with Ford?_ " Dipper thought to himself.

Dipper and Mabel both exchanged a quick look, and nodded in sync. "Alright. Just, please don't kill each other."

"Can do Pine Tree!" Bill sang.

Once he and Mabel were alone in the living room, Dipper plopped down onto the couch and let out a shaky sigh.

"They'll be okay Sir Dipping Dot. Ford and Bill both know that we'll kick both of their butts if they start to fight." Mabel sat next to him and tapped his cheek. "Besides, Bill needs you to be happy so that you'll work with him."

"Yeah I guess you're right…" he let his sentence trail off, making Mabel suspicious of his mood.

"What's wrong?" She drawled out her words, making sure to emphasis her curiosity.

Dipper shrugged and let his head fall back against the couch. "Mabel, this whole, Bill thing is getting worse. He smiled at me and I felt like my face might start on fire."

She resisted to squeal and covered her mouth with both hands to stop herself from being too loud. "Ooh! Dipper, that's _so_ cute!" she giggled.

"I-I guess, but, Mabel, isn't Bill just going to leave once this whole demon thing is over? Like, what if I let myself get all, head over heels for him just in time for him to leave?"

Mabel let her hands fall into her lap and she looked a little shocked. "Then why…"

"Why what?" He rubbed his face and looked at her through his fingers.

Her hair flipped around as she shook her head a little too quickly. "Nothing. Just... Just don't worry about it too much, okay? I'm sure Bill won't just drop you when this thing is over."

"He'd better not," Dipper mumbled to himself.

"Why not make a move or something? Let him know that you'd like him to stay?" Her smile lead Dipper to believe that she was up to something, but he shrugged it off.

"Already kind of on it. Demons are just difficult," he chuckled.

"That they are bro-bro," she said and chuckled at his remark.

Dipper was a little bit more determined to try and get Bill to stay, since Mabel seemed to know something he didn't, which made him think that maybe her, "match making" skills were at work.

Having a demon boyfriend wouldn't be too bad. Especially if Ford ended up being okay with Bill being there. Then Dipper would get his mentor's approval, and he would get to be with Bill. Win-win for him.

 _'What were they talking about in the kitchen anyway?'_ Dipper's curiosity was getting the better of him, and Mabel could see him start to get antsy.

"Bro, they're okay. We just have to give them space." She put her hand on his shoulder, and gave him a look.

Dipper nodded. "You're right. I'm just a little worried."

Eventually, Ford and Bill came out from the kitchen. Bill smiling like a maniac, and Ford with a stoic, yet happy face.

"It's alright with me if Bill stays and is around you two. Just, let me know the second he gets out of line." He said sternly and looked right at Dipper, his stare holding a message in itself.

Dipper knew that Ford wasn't joking around, and that he would be ready to tear into Bill if either of them got hurt, so Dipper just gave him the same look back, reassuring his grunkle that he wouldn't let Bill get away with anything.

"Perfect! We're all squared away then." Bill grabbed Dipper's hand and pulled him up. "Let's go back to my place to check on my dumbass cousin."

After Dipper said a short, but heavy goodbye to Ford, he and Bill made their way out to his car, where they drove in silence to Bill's apartment.

Dipper was _dying_ to ask what was said between the two, but figured it might be a bit personal, so he thought he'd better leave it alone for now.

"My pet!" Clyde immediately clung to Dipper when they entered the front room, and he nearly dragged him down onto the couch.

"Hello to you too," Dipper grouched, lightly pushing Clyde away from him.

Clyde smirked at him and brushed off the catty remark. "Cipher, you going to cook for us again? I think I'd like it a lot better now that my body can enjoy it."

Bill stared at the two of them for a moment before nodding and moving to go into the kitchen. "Sure, I'll cook. Any requests?"

"Whatever you're comfortable with making." Dipper felt Clyde wrap his arms around his, and he followed the queue to sit next to him on the couch.

"I want something… hot. As long as it's steaming, I'll be good," Clyde purred.

Well, Dipper was uncomfortable. But, he knew he had to play along as part of the deal.

Clyde leaned on him and giggled. "I bet Cipher was pissed today, huh?" He spoke softly so that Bill wouldn't be able to hear him.

Dipper shrugged. "Well, for the most part, he was indifferent about it. I can tell that it irked him a little, but not enough for him to have said anything about it."

That clearly wasn't the answer Clyde had been looking for, and it brought a pout to his lips. "Darn. I'll have to try harder."

"Okay, but first, tell me something about how to keep Bill around. This deal can't just be you making him mad." Dipper crossed his arms and glared down at Clyde, letting him know that he meant business, and that if Clyde didn't deliver, he would be in big trouble. Probably with both him, and Bill.

"Alright, alright." He said waving his hands up in defense. "Talk to him about magic and the symbol stuff. He's a lot like you and loves to learn things. Tell him how you've been interpreting them, and what your take on magic is. Cipher loves to get into people's heads." Clyde leaned back and put his hands behind his head, relaxing into the couch.

 _'A lot like him, huh?'_ he thought _._ Dipper could work with that. And that made Dipper realize that Clyde probably knew Bill better than most people, or demons, did. He could learn a lot from him if he tried to.

When Bill finally finished cooking, they all sat down in the front room to eat, while a random romcom movie played on the TV.

Clyde leaned against Dipper multiple times, and when they finished eating, he had the audacity to pull Dipper onto his lap.

"H-hey, what're you-" Dipper struggled a little against him, but went with it after he realized exactly what Clyde was doing.

"Hush pet, you're warm."

Both of their eyes carefully went over to Bill's to see his reaction, to find that Bill was simply tapping his finger on the arm of the couch and watching the show.

"Pine Tree complains about you once and you're getting locked in the room Grim."

Dipper could hear Clyde huff from the lack of reaction and he couldn't help but snicker at it.

"Shut up," Clyde snapped quietly.

After the show ended, they all retired to their rooms, and settled in for the night.

Once in bed, Bill didn't hesitate to pull Dipper into a spooning position, and let out a long, content sigh. "You are warm," he chuckled.

"I guess I'm the demon space heater now."

The demon laughed and lightly squeezed Dipper. "It's nice," he hummed.

Dipper nodded. Maybe now was a good time to talk about what Clyde had said to. "I think I've finally got pretty much all of the symbols down."

"Yeah?" Bill yawned.

"Mhm. I think they're really cool. Reading that book was actually a lot of fun. A little tiring, but it was definitely worth it." Dipper felt a yawn coming on too, and couldn't help but let out a small squeak at the end of the unwanted reaction to his exhaustion.

Bill chuckled at it. "Even your yawn is…"

The last word was too inaudible for Dipper to hear, and he just shrugged it off, since he felt too tired to ask what Bill had said.

Soon, sleep took him and he welcomed the usual black and white forest that was his Mindscape.

He figured Bill was just taking a little longer to fall asleep, so he took the chance to wander around a little bit.

It was as silent as it usually was. No wildlife, wind, or even his footsteps made any noise, and instead of it being unsettling like it usually was, it was actually kind of calming.

In fact, the whole space had a warm, welcoming feeling to it. Which, was a little weird, but Dipper was fine with it.

A small pond came into view, and Dipper walked to the edge of it, looking down into the water to find that he didn't have a reflection. _'Weird_ ' he thought.

 _'This is a weird dream. And where the heck was Bill?'_

As if on queue, Dipper felt a familiar presence, and looked to his right, where Bill was standing, also looking down into the water.

"You've got a weird Mindscape," he chuckled. "It's pretty here though."

Something was… off, about Bill. Dipper couldn't pinpoint what though.

"Uh, yeah. It's not a bad place to end up almost every night." He paused for a moment to lean up against a tree. "What took you so long to get here? Trouble sleeping?"

Bill shook his head, but kept his eyes on his reflection in the water.

Weird that Bill had one and Dipper didn't. Maybe it was just because he was a demon and Dipper wasn't?

"Your head was hard to get into." Bill finally looked over at him and took a step closer. "But I'm here now," he purred.

There it was again, the golden flame in Bill's eyes flickered again, and it made Dipper feel queasy. It was mischievous, playful, and evil. None of those things surprised Dipper, but as Bill moved closer, he couldn't help, but find them all to be… too much.

"B-Bill?" Dipper found himself pinned against the tree, Bill looking slightly down at him.

"Yes Dipper?"

"You just called me Dipper." Panic rose into his chest, and Dipper tried to move away. This wasn't Bill.

"I did, seeing as that's your name. Now, hold still," he growled.

"No, get off of me!" Dipper yelled. He put his hands on the impostor's shoulders and tried to push him away, but found that he wasn't even able to stop him from inching his face closer.

"Hold still," he said softly in a voice that wasn't Bill's.

Dipper felt the strangely cold lips forcefully press onto his, and he cringed at the hand that was holding his jaw, way too tightly for comfort.

While the impostor kissed him, the trees around him all seemed to wither and die. the trunks cracking, falling and shattering to pieces.

He felt like a blackness was starting to grow around him, and something hot washed over him, making him close his eyes and shudder.

"You're mine now," the other said in a manic way.

Then, Dipper couldn't feel, hear, touch, taste... everything was suddenly, nothing. Empty. Alone. Oh god he wasn't dead, was he?

No, then he wouldn't be able to think. Actually, thinking was the only thing that existed right then. His own words, said only to himself, were the only things that were real.

He tried desperately to speak, move, to do _anything_ , but found that he just couldn't.

Whatever that impostor had done to him, there was no way he was going to be able to fix it.

Hopefully Bill, Mabel, or Ford could, or Dipper was probably going to be stuck in this… void forever.

Bill had to have noticed his absence by then.

Right?

 _ **AN: RIP Dip. (He's not actually dead tho :p)**_


	19. Chapter 19

_**AN: Wow look I updated this :D**_

 _ **I'm sorry it took so long. To be perfectly honest, I lost my inspiration to do this story. I love it because it's my first, but other stuff has come up and I just distracted with those. There's still more to come with this fic though. Not many chapters are left (I haven't decided how many exactly) but yeeeah. We still have the showdown then maybe two chapters after that.**_

 _ **Anyway. I hope you enjoy this chapter :3 Warning: there is some gore in the beginning.**_

A sudden sound woke Dipper up, and he shot up from his bed quickly. Why was he in bed? Had Bill found and helped him?

He stood up and stretched, yawning at how tired he felt.

The air was cold, a lot colder than usual, and it made Dipper wander out into the hall to check the thermostat. As he walked, a strange smell hit his nose, and he figured he'd check it out after he checked the heat.

"Huh. Seventy-two. Why is it so cold then?" he mumbled to himself. Maybe Mabel had just left a window open or something.

Now time to check out what that smell was.

He went downstairs and into the kitchen, thinking that the smell could be coming from there. It looked perfectly normal though, and nothing was cooking, so it must've been coming from the front room.

As soon as the view of the room was within his field of vision, his heart nearly stopped.

Bill was standing and facing away from him, looking down at Mabel, his parents, and Ford, who were all lying on the floor. Covered in blood, almost too much to even see their faces.

"Bill!? What-wha-" Dipper felt sick. He almost puked, but instead held his ground. The smell of the blood was stronger and crimson red stained the floor. "What did you do?" he yelled over his gagging.

The demon turned to face Dipper, his eyes a bright yellow, looking like the freaky monster he was in the Mindscape. "Pine Tree! So glad that you could join us!" He said throwing his hands up into the air and giving a gruesome smile.

"What did you do?" He yelled again, taking a step closer to Bill. "You killed them!" His face grew hot and he had to refrain from looking back at their lifeless faces. "I-I thought you weren't evil anymore!"

"Good, evil, potato, tomato. Hey, did you know that your dad would try to sacrifice himself to save your mom and sister? Sixer even tried to save them as well, but he's gotten so old, so he wasn't much help."

Tears soaked Dipper's cheeks and his knees gave out from under him, hitting the floor painfully as he sobbed. "Why?" he squeaked out as he cringed at the pain. "Why Bill?"

Bill made a "tsk" sound and came over to Dipper, kneeling down in front of him so that they were eye level. "You think I've changed? I bet you even developed feelings for me, didn't you?"

"I did! How could you do this!" he sobbed. What was happening? This couldn't be real. It couldn't be.

He laughed and leaned forwards, pushing his lips onto Dipper's.

Dipper didn't care to fight it. He was too emotionally exhausted, so he just stiffened until it was over. More tears came because he once kind of welcomed the kisses, but now, he felt disgusted that Bill was even this close to him.

"No kiss back? That's okay." A sharp pain in Dipper's abdomen made him fall forward onto Bill, which made the demon chuckle. "Aw, not feeling too good Pine Tree?" He cooed.

He looked down and saw that one of Bill's hands was inside of his chest. Blood was starting to pour out, and some even started to come up in his throat. "Wh-why?"

"Simple! I hate you humans. You think I actually came here to help people? I'm a demon, dipshit." He said, his smirk changing to an emotionless stare.

Dipper's vision started to blur and he just let himself go limp. "You're the worst," he whispered. Blood was pouring from his mouth now, and though he wanted to say more, to yell and scream at Bill until he was blue in the face, he couldn't.

"I am. Don't you ever forget that."

Everything went black, and Dipper was back in the weird nothing space. The blood was gone, and the horrible pain in his chest was too. What the hell was going on?

A little while later, his eyes opened again to his room. Everything looked the same as it had before. Messy desk, clothes in random piles near the walls, pictures of he and Mabel with friends hung up. All of it looked normal.

"What the fuck?" Dipper got out of bed much quicker that time, immediately going down to the front room, where he was met with the same scene as before.

Bill heard him running in and turned to face him with his arms out as if presenting the gore. "Pine Tree! That was fast. Come here."

Dipper backed away a little. "This… what is happening?" He could feel his heart thumping in his chest, and the tears prickling in his eyes. This was… real. It had to be. It felt so real. But how?

"Just sit back and enjoy the ride kid! Last time I killed you rather quickly. I think this time we get to take our time." A horrible smile spread on his lips and he chuckled. "We're going to be here for a while. I hope your screams are as amazing I think they will be."

Bill woke up with a cloudy head, and felt like the room might be spinning. For some reason, he hadn't been able to get into the Mindscape that night.

He wondered if Dipper and Clyde also had the same problem. The spot next to him that Pine Tree should be in was empty, confusing Bill.

"Pine Tree?" He looked around the room, realizing that it was way too light for it to be morning. It had to have been the middle of the day, and he had missed school.

Where the hell did Pine Tree go? Did he seriously leave Bill at home? Why?

Bill fumbled around for a moment looking for his cell phone, and saw that he had a text from Star.

" _Late night? Why didn't you boys come today? And what's with not answering your phones?_ "

Pine Tree hadn't gone to school? Something was up.

"Clyde," Bill growled as he flung open his door. "Where is Pine Tree?"

Clyde blinked awake and groaned. "Wha…? It's your human, you keep track of it."

Bill didn't bother to answer, and turned on his heels to search the rest of the apartment.

No Pine Tree in the front room. Not in the kitchen. Empty bathroom.

He went back into his room to see if maybe he had left a note or something, and saw that Dipper's car keys had been left, along with his cell phone. No note though.

"We need to go see Star and IQ." Bill rushed back into Clyde's room, and grabbed his arm, snapping his fingers so that they were in the Pines' home.

There was no time to waste explaining things to his cousin now, he had to make sure Dipper was okay first.

Before he let himself freak out too much, Bill searched the home to see if maybe Pine Tree had gone there for some reason, but found it to be empty, save for a confused old man at the table in the kitchen.

"Cipher, what on Earth are you doing?"

"Pine Tree is missing." His voice came out more strained than he had wanted it to, but was okay with it if it meant showing his very real concern to Sixer.

"What do you mean? He's just, gone?" The man stood and his brows furrowed in slight anger. "Where is he?"

Bill rolled his eyes at him. "Would I be looking for him if I knew?" he nearly shouted, throwing his arms out in frustration.

He had to calm himself down. Pine Tree was smart. If something really was wrong, then he would be able to survive until Bill found him.

Taking in a deep breath, Bill rubbed at his eyes. "He wasn't in bed this morning. His car keys and phone were gone and it looks like he literally just got up and walked away. But why would he do that?"

Sixer shrugged. "I don't know, but we need to find him."

"We need more people. Is Star in her room?" He hadn't checked there yet. Maybe, _hopefully_ , Dipper was in there.

Ford nodded and Bill quickly made his way to her room, knocking a few times before opening the door.

"Bill? What's wrong?" Star was sitting on her bed, a bunch of fabric sitting on her lap, her fingers busy with a needle and thread. But no Pine Tree.

"Your brother is missing. I don't know where he could've gone. We need help finding him."

She set her sewing supplies down, and nodded. "Bill, are you sure Dipper isn't just having a bit of a freak out? Did you check the library? Sometimes he goes there when he's upset. Let's go check that place out before we jump to too many conclusions."

"Good idea. You check there. Keep in mind that he didn't take the car, so he would need to be in a place that he could've walked too by now. He doesn't have his phone either, so don't bother calling it." He went to run back out of the room, but Star called out to him, making him pause.

"Wait! You… think he's okay, right? I know that Clyde had the intentions of hurting him at first, do you think maybe, another demon got to him?"

Bill shook his head. "He was in my apartment, right next to me. The place is warded all to hell, and I would've killed anyone who tried to take him. The only way someone could've gotten to… him…" Oh. Why did Bill not think of that?

Of course it was Balthazar. He had been closing in on them and would take any chance he got to separate Bill from Dipper. The unfortunate trip to the Dreamscape caused by that stupid Sixer lover was probably what gave them away, and Baltzy had just been waiting for the right time to strike. Where would he have taken Dipper though?

"Bill? Hello? What is it?" Mabel was suddenly in front of him, waving her hand in front of his face.

"Balthazar. The demon I came here to stop. He took Dipper to make me and Clyde an easier target. Without him his shadows can find us much easier." Bill thought for a moment. Star was magical too. Not as openly as Dipper was, but still. He could use that. "Scrap going to the library. How do you feel about tattoos?"

She gave him a strange look and crossed her arms. "Where are you going with this?"

"I need you to get your magic flowing. I can ward you so that it doesn't cause any problems, but it'll help hide us a little better. We need to find your brother's Mindscape and help get Balthazar out of his head. He has no idea how to be human, and he's possessing Dipper right now. He could seriously damage his body, so the quicker we do this the better."

"You didn't need to convince me," she chuckled. "I'll get a few tattoos to save my bro-bro's life."

He forced a smile. "I know. I'm just…"

"Worried? Me too. But you're Bill Cipher! And I'm Mabel freakin' Pines! Not to mention that we have your cousin and grunkle Ford with us. There's no way we won't be able to beat this guy and save Dipper." She said, putting her hands on her hips, a determined look filling her features. "Just tell us what we need to do Capitan!"

Bill nodded. It was nice to know that he had gained her trust. Hopefully Pine Tree might feel the same way after they saved him. Hopefully he would feel… No he couldn't think about that right now. Whether Dipper felt the same as he did or not, he had to focus on saving him.

Clyde and Ford were sitting awkwardly in the kitchen, waiting for Bill to come back. They both looked a little concerned, surely because Bill didn't act this way. They didn't need to know why he was so upset though. They could go on thinking that Dipper was just a shield to him.

"What's the plan Cipher?" Ford tapped at the table, clearly nervous. "How do we find my nephew?"

Time to put on the face Ford knew best. "Well Sixer, I've got a proposition for you. How do you feel about being bait while I take Mabel and run around for a little while?" He rested his hand on his chin and cocked his head, a wide smile on his face.

"Dammit Bill, stop dancing around things. This isn't a time for games! Tell me what happened to him, and tell me how I can help find him."

"Oh, feisty! Alright, you win IQ, here's the plan; I take Star, who will soon be magically inclined, and go find Pine Tree's Mindscape, while you two," he waved his finger between Clyde and Ford "go and play decoy with the shadows. I can't promise this will go very smoothly, but it's our best shot."

Sixer leaned back in his chair and hummed in thought. "You've explained what the shadows are to me, so I know that they wouldn't likely go for us. What makes you think they'll follow us?"

Bill leaned back as well, putting his hands behind his head. "I can make Clyde a big target by pumping him full of magic and leaving him with a human who's barely magical."

"You shouldn't give me enough magic to do that." Clyde crossed his arm and glared at Bill. "If you're going to face Balthazar you're going to need all that magic. If anything, I should be giving mine to you."

"Trust me Grim. I know this will work. Okay, well, I'm like _pretty_ sure it will."

Everyone stared at Bill for a moment with worried glances. Good. He needed them to be weary if this was going to actually work. If any of them acted too cocky about it, it would give them away in a heartbeat.

Ford sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his glasses briefly moving up to his forehead. "If you really think you can help Dipper, then I'll do it. But we can't go in there with our heads cut off, I need to know what you're doing so that we know how long and to what extent we should distract these things."

"Well, we have until bed time to talk this out, so are you all ready to go to my apartment to get geared up?" He stood and put his hand out for the others to put theirs on. "Are we all in on this then?"

Mabel put her hand in first, smiling. "Team save Dipdop!"

Sixer chuckled and shook his head before standing up and adding his hand. "Team stop demons from ruining my family's lives."

All eyes went to Clyde, who still had his arms crossed.

"C'mon," Mabel begged. "I'll show you how to make sweaters if you do the thing," she said in a sing-song voice.

He huffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Team I can finally leave after this."

With all their hands over the table, on top of Bill's, he smiled and nodded. "Team save Pine Tree!" He shouted as he lifted his hand, the others flying up with his.

They all piled into Ford's car and began their drive to Bill's place.

Star talked the whole time to Ford, discussing magic and what he knew about it, and Clyde just stared out the window like Bill did.

Both of them knew how dangerous this was going to be. Especially with Bill giving a lot of his magic to him. Clyde would need it more than he would though. Balthazar was likely going to send a ton of shadows after him, and he would need the human distraction and the power to deal with them.

Bill on the other hand was going off of his ability to guess what others were going to do. If he was right about Balthazar, then he wouldn't need much magic at first to beat him.

He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. He was going to find Pine Tree. And when he was safe, and back in his arms, he would see just how he felt. Based off of what he says will determine if he was going to stay or not. And he would too, if Dipper felt the same way. He was new to human emotion, but so far he liked it. Even the bad parts. If he could experience all of those with Dipper, then Bill would stay in this meatstick.

Sure it was strange that Pine Tree, of all people, would be the one to bring this out of him, but he was glad that it had been him. He was smart enough to keep up with him, the being magical thing was a huge plus, and the way he looked when he was all flustered made Bill get flustered.

Yeah, staying in the meatsack would be worth it for him. He knew because the more he thought about Pine Tree, the more his body felt warm and the harder it was to hide his smile.

"Alright, we're here," Ford said as he opened the car door.

Bill got out first and turned to face the others. "Alright! Operation save Pine Tree is a go! Let's head inside and map out my battle plan!"

Mabel mock saluted him and giggled. "Yes sir!"

Without waiting for the others to catch up, Bill made his way inside, his smile widening. "I'm coming for you Pine Tree. And whether you like me or not I'm stealing another kiss."

 _ **AN: Bill is so determined right now I love it :3 Protective Bill is my weakness tbh.**_

 _ **Thanks for reading :3 Reviews and Favorites are always appreciated :D**_


	20. Chapter 20

_**AN: BACK FROM HIATUS BABY. WOO. This took forever to write and stuff 'cause I've changed the ending like eight million times. Pbtbbtbtbt. Anyway, enjoy the babes fighting a big bad demon :D**_

Mabel sat and watched as Bill paced around his apartment, a little anxious about the plan that still seemed to be unfolding in his head.

Ford was sitting next to her trying his best not to be close to either of the demons while scowling at Bill. "What is the plan Bill? You've kept us waiting long enough."

"Sorry Sixer!" Bill beamed as he halted his steps. "Just ironing out some details!" He laced his fingers together then stretched them out in front of him palms out, grunting lightly. "I think I've got a foolproof plan to save Pine Tree! Which is good because all of us are fools!" Bill laughed and pointed to Ford. "You and my beloved cous' here, are going to go out and be big and flashy and destructive, hopefully attractive most of Baltzy's goons."

He turned on his heels and made a finger gun at Mabel. "You and I, are going to sneak into Pine Tree's head, -or at least get close to it- and take the big man himself down! Now, I can't tell too much more, or else it won't work! So! Our first step is making Shooting Star magical so that she can help hide me."

She looked down at her hands and made a worried face. "What if I can't get my magic to work?"

"Psht," Bill waved his hands at her dismissively and rolled his eyes. "Star, trust me; you've got this."

Though she smiled and nodded, Mabel couldn't help but feel like she might not be able to do it. Dipper's _life_ was on the line, and that made her antsy.

"Alright then! Let's get to writing those symbols!" Bill trotted off to his room, leaving the three of them to stir.

"I hope Bill's not just blowing hot air," Ford grumbled. "Unfortunately he's the only option I can think of. I know nothing of this other demon." He took his glasses off, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, sighing. "Damn demons."

Clyde scoffed. "I'm right here you know," he huffed, crossing his arms childishly.

Ford glared at him. "And?"

Mabel decided to step in before either of them started a fight. "Bill's changed a lot, and he seems honestly upset about Dipper being gone. I'm sure whatever he has planned will work. And if it doesn't, then he's not the type to give up, and neither are we, so we'll figure out something new."

"You're right sweetie," Ford smiled. "We'll get him back regardless."

"Star, would you be so kind as to join me in my room?" Bill called, his voice breaking the silence that had fallen.

"Coming!" Mabel stood and was only able to take one step before Ford lightly grabbed her arm.

"Call me if he does anything stupid. I have no problem punching a 'teenager'."

She gave a smile and rolled her eyes. "You know I can kick his butt if I need to." With that she left and made her way into Bill's room, leaving Ford with Clyde.

They _probably_ wouldn't kill each other.

Bill was sitting on his bed running his fingers over the cover of an orange book, a somber look on his face.

"Tat me up, demon boy!" She plopped down in front of him and rolled the sleeves of her pink sweater up to her elbows then held her arms out to him.

He smiled and set the book aside. "Right. We need to get your magic flowing first though. You know what meditating is, right?"

"That hippie thing my mom does? Of course!" She said, clapping her hands together cheerfully.

The demon chuckled and nodded. "Yes, the hippie thing your mom does. I need you to close your eyes and relax. Listen to the sound of my voice."

Mabel did as he said and let herself loosen up, her shoulders slumping and arms falling to her side. She hadn't realized how tense her face muscle had been until she wiggled them around to get them loosened up.

"Good! Now, take a few deep, calming breaths. In through the mouth, out through the nose."

Again Mabel complied, getting herself to a blank state of mind.

The two were silent for a little while, neither of them saying a thing when Bill placed his hand on her knee.

"Bill, how confident are you of this plan?" She asked softly.

"It should work."

Mabel gave a nod and took another deep breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"You used Dipper before his magic came out with Clyde. How did his magic block you out when it wasn't flowing? How come I need to kickstart mine first?"

He chuckled and the hand on her knee squeezed reassuringly. "Your brother has insane magical potential. He's constantly leaking it, even if he's not trying."

Mabel caught the fondness, and worry, in his voice. There was no hiding a crush this bad from Mabel. She giggled and put her hand over his. "That just means he's probably not taking any of this 'Baltzy's' crap. I bet he's the one bothering the demon."

Bill gave a soft snort and placed his other hand on her other knee. "Hopefully. The guy specializes in nightmares. Dipper doesn't do well with nightmares."

"Don't you do nightmares too?"

"Sure I do! But that's not the most efficient way to pull magic. I get mine a better way." He paused and wiggled a little, the bed creaking a bit at his motion. "Now! Let's get you going Star."

With a nodded Mabel prepared herself while Bill started to work his magic.

A tingling sensation went up her legs from where Bill's hands were placed and she grimaced at it.

"Don't worry, it won't be much more uncomfortable than this. I'm simply pulling at your magic is all, which isn't always fun. I need you to push on it though. Think about saving Pine Tree."

Mabel did her best to focus on doing what he said. "Pushing" it didn't fully make sense to her, but she knew if she just focused on Dipper she could do what she would need to.

They were going to get him back. He was going to be safe and sound, and she was going to punch the demon that took him in the face. Maybe. If he wasn't too big.

Maybe she would leave the punching to Bill.

"There you go! You're doing it! Way to go Star!" Bill praised her as he moved his hands off of her knees. "Keep it up for a little longer. Just until it's going by itself."

She snorted. "You just jumped started me like a car, didn't you?"

"Yup! It's actually really hard to do, but seeing as Pine Tree is at stake, I managed."

The two fell into another silence and Mabel focused on keeping the weird flow of energy going by thinking of Dipper.

"Bill?" Her chest filled with a strange tingling sensation as a thought crossed her mind.

"Hm?"

"What happens if we lose?"

"We're not going to," he said a bit harshly.

She sighed and opened her eyes seeing that the demon was in a bit of a huff over her question. "I guess I'm just asking… Is there a plan B?"

"And a C, and a D. Plan A is solid. You just have to keep thinking that." He stood and snatched a pen off of his desk then sat right back down across from Mabel. "Ready for the marks?"

Mabel made sure her sleeves were rolled up still before sticking her arms out. "Ready Freddy!"

Bill's face scrunched a bit in concentration as he took Mabel's wrist and began drawing on it.

She made no remark on how ordinary the thing looked, and instead just focused on how weird the ink felt as Bill expertly moved the pen around. The tattoos were small and simple rune looking things, probably something only Dipper or Bill could ever read, but Mabel actually kind of liked them.

"Done. Two to each wrist. That should be enough to help keep any backlash from hurting you, and keep us hidden while we get to Dipper's door. Just don't do any-"

"Fire!" All Mabel had to do to light her fists on fire was think about it, and suddenly there was bright, fuchsia flames engulfing her hands.

Instead of looking worried, Bill gawked at them with a smile. "I like your thinking!" He laughed and light up his own hands, blue flames nearly swallowing up his entire arms. "Fire!"

The two laughed in a mock-evil way as they waved them around.

It was nice to have a moment to see how relaxed Bill actually seemed. Mabel shouldn't worry. He had this under control.

Once the two of them calmed down, they made their way back into the living room to talk to Ford and Clyde a little more about how the night would go down.

Both seemed to have sat in silence the entire time, Ford glaring at the wall and Clyde glaring down at his phone.

"Alright, battle plan!" Bill shouted to get their attention.

They all looked to him, Mabel and Ford eager, Clyde looking like he might fall asleep. Though, Mabel couldn't help but notice he seemed a bit nervous under the face he was putting on.

"We go to bed at nine, which is in a few hours. Fordsy, you'll sleep in here. The couch folds out into a bed and Mabel can sleep in my room with me."

"I think not! She and I could share-"

Mabel put her hand up and stopped Ford. "I'll be okay. If it'll make things easier for Bill, then it's whatever."

He nodded and sighed while pushing his glasses up more on his nose. "Fine then."

"Anyway," Bill continued as if he hadn't been rudely interrupted, "when we get to the Mindscape, you and Clyde will split off after I transfer most of my magic to him. You should be enough to give him a tiny bit of a shield, but it won't last long, so you'll need to get as far from us as you can, as quickly as you can. Fight off whatever comes at you and make it look like you're defending something. Star and I will go off to get Pine Tree."

Clyde leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at Bill. "And how are you going to deal with Balthazar with her, no magic, and him holding a hostage?"

Bill wiggled his index finger at him and smiled. "It's a secret!" He sang.

"Fine, go get yourself killed then," Clyde grumbled.

The blond demon waved him off and rolled his eyes. "Until then, who wants food?"

Mabel and Bill cooked a simple dinner of chicken and rice while Clyde put a movie on, Ford sitting and writing in a small notebook the entire time.

Bill stayed uncharastically quiet as they worked in the kitchen and it made Mabel relax a little. He was probably thinking of every way this could go wrong, and hopefully of ways to get out of those situations.

After Mabel convinced Ford that the food hadn't been poisoned, they all ate in a weird, tense silence, Bill being the only one relaxed enough to finish his plate and nearly fall asleep while watching the movie.

"Everyone let me know when you're comfortable and I'll send you to sleep," Bill said as he stood. "The quicker we do this, the better."

Bill had given Mabel privacy to get cuddled into bed, and told her to just let him know when she was ready for him to come in.

She took her time making sure she was mentally prepared enough before setting off in the dream world to save Dipper. She didn't know what she would do if whatever Bill had planned didn't work. Sure he seemed confident enough, but he seemed confident about taking over their world when she was twelve too, and _that_ worked out well for him.

"Okay, you can come in now." She was wrapped in the extra blanket and pushed up against the wall so that they didn't have to be too close.

"Thank god. Sixer wouldn't shut up. Glad I put him out. Clyde's out too, so it's just you and I." He hopped into the bed next to her and pulled his own blanket up to his shoulder, not caring that he hadn't changed into his sleepwear. "You'll probably wake up in your own dream first. Might leave you there while I do the magic thing with Grim, 'kay?"

She nodded. "I'm ready."

"Alright. 'Night Star."

Before she could respond, Mabel was out cold, her mind slipping into a dream almost immediately.

As usual, it consisted of pink grass, blue cotton candy clouds that rained soda, and candy cane trees with chocolate chips for leaves.

Mabel made a pun to herself about how sweet her dreams always seemed to be and snorted as she walked down the road paved with rock candy.

It was a nice dream, but where was Bill? Did the magic thing take a while to do?

She wandered around her dream world for a little while getting more and more antsy.

Just before she was about to try and wake herself up, the world around her was sucked away and she was suddenly standing by a bunch of doors.

"Miss me?" Bill laughed, cocking his eyebrow.

His appearance was not what she was used to and it frightened her a bit. He had bright, intimidating, yellow eyes and his smile filled with sharp teeth that looked very predatory.

"Uh, sure. Where are we?" She spun around slowly taking in her surroundings, seeing doors of all different colors.

Most were fairly plain, but some were crazy colorful and a few even had jewels on them.

"The place where all the minds meet kiddo! Each door leads into someone's head!" He floated around her and kept his creepily large grin on his face. "I already sent Sixer and Grim off, so you and I can go get the party started with Pine Tree!"

Mabel didn't have time to ask any questions before the doors around them blurred and started to move around them.

"Gotta find his door first! Might be hard to recognize with Baltzy's grimy hands all over it."

Everything came to an abrupt stop, a single door freezing right in front of them.

It was a navy blue, very simple looking, but there was a thick, almost _oozing,_ orange muck all over it. The doorknob on it had what looked like almost hundreds of glowing strings tied around it, all going off in random directions.

"Is this his?" She meekly pointed to it and looked over at the demon, who looked overjoyed.

"Yup!" Bill seemed to be able to stretch his already creepy smile wider as he twisted the knob and it opened. "Time to party!"

Once the door was open enough the two of them got sucked in by a warm gust of wind.

Mabel landed on her back and had to rub at her head where it bounced off of the floor. "That's smarts!" She groaned.

"Would'a warned ya, but seems you figured it out just fine on your own!" Bill walked forward super casually, Mabel watching his every move.

He was suddenly being so weird, and kind of a jerk. Like his old self.

She stood up to see where they had ended up, and what she was met with made her jaw drop.

Classmates were lined up in rows, their eyes all searching the black abyss around them frantically, standing still as if they couldn't will themselves to move. All of them probably thought this was some horrible nightmare, and were probably shocked that literally every student of the high school was in their dream, suffering with them.

Standing in front of them all was Dipper, his current smile more menacing than Mabel thought possible for his usually cutesy face. Which was currently oozing the same gross, orange stuff as his door was from his eyes, which were fully colored the same color with black slits for pupils.

"Baltzy!" Bill sang as he stepped forward.

All eyes went to the blond demon, and Baltzy-Dipper, or as Mabel now called him Bapper, glared at him.

"Cipher, what a horrendous face you're wearing! It was hard for me to slip it on to get into this human's personal space. Really, why choose such an unattractive form?" He stepped a bit closer to Bill and Mabel decided it was time to stand next to Bill, just in case he should need some help.

"Look who's talking! You have to hide behind a cute face just to hide your hideous one!" Bill's smile dropped like a rock and his voice lowered. "Now stop this nightmare farm and hang up the towel, Baltzy."

Bapper dropped his smile as well and narrowed his eyes. "Call me that one more time and half of this human's memories get dumped."

"I don't care! Do what you want to him!" Bill's smile returned and he floated up above their heads.

Mabel glared at him. "What do you mean you don't care?" She snapped.

He looked down at her and shrugged. "I don't care what he does to you humans!" The demon snapped his fingers and suddenly there was purple snakes all over the ground.

The other students seemed to snap out of their weird stand-still trance and all started to scream and try to avoid them.

"Bill! What are you doing?" Mabel clenched her fists. He wasn't really going back to how he was, was he? What the hell was with this not caring crap?

"What I've been planning on doing all along!" Again he snapped his fingers and bubbles similar to the ones he used when he had tried to end the world popped up, only these ones seemed to pop on contact and weird, very confusing objects or creatures spilled out of them.

The students were in utter chaos, running around trying to avoid the oddities that Bill had cast on them.

"I don't care what happens to this place, so long as this asshole doesn't one-up me in power! What're you going to do about it Star? You can't stop me. You're only one half of a duo that can."

Mabel was fuming. "After everything you've said, everything you've done, you're just going to throw it all away!? Bill I thought you changed!" Tears spilled over her cheeks and she huffed. "Yes I am going to stop you! Both of you!"

"Double crossing the humans! Classic Cipher. Bit predictable though, if you ask me." Bapper crossed his arms and gave Mabel an unamused look. "Neither of you can stop me. Especially since this idiot is giving these kids an even worse nightmare, which is fueling my magic!"

Bill laughed in the horrible, insane way that made Mabel remember how terrifying he was.

Gah, why had she let herself fall for this? She was helping him romance Dipper for Pete's sake! He wasn't going to get away with this. Not on her watch.

"Bill!" She shouted. "I'm going to kick your ass! And you," she glared at Bapper, "you're next!"

Remembering that she could do almost anything in this place, Mabel brought herself to Bill's level and readied herself to punch him, only to have her fist caught by the demon.

"Sorry Star, I'm not as easy to take out here as I am in the real world!" He snapped his fingers on his free hand and more creatures appeared below them.

Bapper brought himself up with them to get away from the mess of students screaming and running. "You're making a mess! I know your thing is chaos, but c'mon, I had them all neat!"

Bill lifted his finger up at Bapper and smiled. "Give me a minute to deal with Star and we'll get back to our business."

Bapper rolled his eyes but otherwise seemed fine with Bill's short break from their banter.

He pulled Mabel closer and gave a horrible smile. "Ready to face your fate Mabel Pines? The real, not nightmare produced, Mabel?"

She tried to kick and punch at him but found herself too frazzled to make any good hits. "You were supposed to be good now!" She cried, more tears soaking her cheeks. "We were going to be happy and I was going to help you with Dipper, and, and-" Her rage from before had turned into sobs. "We were supposed to be a team! What did you do with Ford while I was dreaming? Did you and Clyde plan this?"

"Ford's been taken care of. Now you, _Mabel,_ are about to meet your end as well!" He raised his hand, his sharp claws coming down faster than Mabel was ready for.

She flinched, but when has hand hit her it was soft, and instead of pain an agony, a simple puff of blue smoke engulfed her.

Mabel slowly opened her eyes and saw that Bill was now looking at Bapper with his creepy smile, looking very satisfied with himself. She looked down at herself to see what he had done to her, but found that she couldn't see herself.

He had made her invisible?

"No! What did you do Cipher!" Bapper was now curled in on himself, the orange ooze spilling out of his face at a gross pace. "The human's… Fi-" His voice turned into gurgles and he coughed out more of the slime. "How is he doing this!? This body is-" More ooze coming up from his throat cut him off.

Bill clicked his tongue. "I just made his real twin sister get brutally murdered in front of his face! I also mentioned that I've killed his great uncle! I gave the poor sappling some pretty bad mental issues a while back, and am very aware that if you put him under enough pressure…" He paused as Bapper convulsed and groaned. "He'll snap like a twig!"

Mabel watched with wide, very confused, eyes. Bill was trying to get Dipper to have a panic attack?

"See the kid's also pretty smart, so I figured he'd be fighting the whole time, and not be as affected by your nightmare shit. He probably figured out it was you within five minutes! What he didn't count on was the real me killing his sister! And now you're using him, a magical human with natural talent for it, to channel your magic, which I've been feeding this whole time!"

Bapper growled at him and tried to reach forward to grab Bill but failed miserably.

"He's probably going ballistic in there! I bet having your magic turned on you is a little painful!" Bill laughed and looked at his nails as if he were a little bored. "Originally I was just going to try and rip you both apart, but that'd hurt the kid a bit and would be super messy, and since I made several deals promising to not hurt him, and I hate messes, I figured this was the better option."

"Cipher!" Bapper's eyes flared with color then dulled again. "If a fight's what you want, then it's a fight you'll get!" He got into a fighting stance and flares of his orange magic came from him like spikes in all directions. Flames licked up his arms and Bapper was making sure to show off his sharp teeth.

Dipper's transformation caused his classmates to all back away as far as they could while still trying to avoid the chaos Bill had brought, causing even more mayhem, as they couldn't stay in one spot for long.

Mabel had to cup her ears and close her eyes for a moment to give her brain a break from all the colors and noise. Ha! Her needing a break from bright colors and loud noises. This was new.

Bill just stood with a plain face on as if he was bored, even going so far as to yawn at Bapper's anger.

"Is that all you got, Baltzy?" He cooed.

"If you say that name one more time I'm go-"

"Baltzy!" Bill sang, cutting the other demon off.

"That's it Cipher!" He yelled before advancing towards Bill. "I'm gonna wipe that ugly smirk off your face and show you what it's like to be a successful demon!" He yelled, changing Dipper's voice to a deep, demonic one.

Just before Bapper hit him, Bill lazily moved out of the way. "Good luck trying to catch me!" He yelled back.

Bill dodged every attack Bapper threw at him and almost looked like he was having fun with it. He bounced off the black walls, making Bapper collide into them and crack his "orderly" room.

"Damn you Cipher!" Bapper was visibly struggling, his flames and magic flickering as he went.

Mabel watched quietly, not wanting to mess up Bill's plan of making Dipper think she was dead. Sure it was awful to make your twin think that, but Mabel caught on to what Bill was doing. Dipper was not the kind to take a betrayal like that lightly, and was likely fighting Baltzy with all his might.

Bapper growled louder and started to throw fireballs at Bill.

The blond demon dodged most of them, only getting brushed by one or two. "Alright Baltzy, I let you have you fun chasing me around, but now it's my turn to chase you."

Bill seemed a little disheartened, but he kept his smile as he disappeared and transported behind Bapper, grabbing his arm and yanking him to the ground.

"No, no! I will not be undone by the likes of _you!_ " Bapper's voice sounded terrifyingly distorted and his fire flared up, knocking Bill back, which earned a surprised look on the blond's face. "Have your other humans then! This one will be of use to me on it's own!"

The walls around them cracked and everyone stilled, Bill's weirdness fizzling out of existence.

"Good luck finding me again, Cipher!" Bapper stood and his magic lashed out, swallowing the entire room in orange.

When it cleared, Bapper was gone and they were all in a white, empty space. Their classmates murmured and looked around to each other to try and figure out what had just happened and what was going on.

"Fuck!" Bill had his hands in his hair, pulling at it. "Fuck!" He threw his arms down in frustration. With a snap of his fingers, everyone blipped out of the area, save for he and Mabel, who was then visible.

"What happened? Why didn't you tell me about the plan? Where's Dipper?" She asked as she made her way over to the upset demon.

He put his hand up and stopped her questioning. "I needed your reaction to be real, Star. And, I don't know. I'm going to have to find where he's keeping Dipper's door again and hope that plan B goes better than plan A." He huffed and threw his hands up again. "Why couldn't Dipper beat him? What the Hell is that kid even doing in there? Did I make him lose the will to live by killing you?"

Mabel patted his back as the demon rubbed his face and groaned. "Hey, it's okay. I'm sure Dip is giving him the fight of his life. We just have to trust that he's strong and smart."

Bill nodded and let out a long sigh. "Hopefully," he grumbled. "Anyway, let's go get Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb and tell them I'm a failure that couldn't catch Baltzy."

Before Mabel could say anything else, she was suddenly awake.

She sat up abruptly and found that Bill was already pulling himself out of bed, mumbling curses under his breath. "Hey, it's okay. There's a plan B, you even said so yourself."

"Star, he could be hurting him right now! The longer he has Dipper the more he's corrupting him! Who knows what he's been doing to his head! I've already fucked him up enough, he doesn't need this on top of that." Bill punched the wall, leaving a decently sized hole in it.

"Bill, stop. Dipper's going to be fine. I know my bro-bro well enough to know that he's not going to let some citrus weirdo break his head." She was half trying to calm Bill down and half trying to reassure herself that everything was going to be okay. Dipper was smart and tough, but… Well, if he thought she and Ford were dead, he might be upset enough to be weak willed.

"Citrus weirdo?" Bill chuckled dryly.

Mabel shrugged. "Well yeah, he's like all orange."

Bill let out a loud laugh. "He's going to _hate_ it when I call him that. Good banter material Star. Now let's go get plan B in motion."

Ford and Clyde were already on the couch, Ford talking Clyde's ear off.

"So these shadow creatures we fought, are they pure energy like you demons are? Are they essentially just an extension of magic?" He was writing in his little notebook again, his hand moving faster than the pen seemed to be able to keep up with.

Clyde groaned and looked to Bill. "Please get him to shut up. _Please._ "

"Sixer, we have better things to talk about." Bill stood in front of them and waited to speak again until Mabel was sitting down. "So, I failed. A bit miserably, I hate to admit. Pulp-Head still has Pine Tree."

"Seriously? After you talked it up so much?" Ford snapped.

"I talk up everything Fordsy! You should know that by now!" Bill was now smiling, putting on his snarky mask for Ford. "Anyway, I have a new plan. Pine Tree thinks you two are dead and that I'm a backstabbing asshole, which I can work with! I'll face Baltzy again, this time alone, and try to get Pine Tree to freak out again. I know that if I push just the right button, he'll go over the edge and explode."

Ford went to protest but Bill stopped him. "Metaphorically. Of course," he added.

"You pretended that Mabel and I were dead to get Dipper to freak out?" Her grunkle crossed his arms and glared at Bill. "Explain exactly what you did and what we're going to do now then, because I'm not going into a room filled with those things again unless I know it's actually going to help Dipper."

"Sure did! The kid has panic attacks, which shut out certain parts of the brain, -as you know- and I'm hoping it helps cut out Baltzy from the kid's head. Once the panic clears, he'll have a split second to push him out. That is, _if_ the kid is using his magic against him like I told him he could. Well, more shouted it to the world, but I'm sure he heard it."

Mabel raised her hand excitedly. "Oh, ooh! Bill, I have an idea!"

He pointed at her and nodded. "Idea making! Good! What is it Star?"

"If the main goal is to get Dipper to have a panic attack, then we need to put him in one of the situations that cause one. Sure, my death would make him freak out, but to have a _panic_ freak out, we need to get to the source of the problem; Weirdmaggedon."

Bill scratched his chin and nodded. "Right, right. Flare up the trauma I put him through. Great."

Mabel shrugged and pursed her lips. "I know, it's not going to be _fun,_ but we're going to need to have him think he's going through something like that again, and end it with a big bang. You've seen what happens when he's around a loud noise. Instant panic attack."

"We can't just _hope_ Dipper will have a panic attack and be able to shove the demon out," Ford sighed. "Cipher we need a better plan B."

Bill made a finger gun at Ford and made a soft "pew". "Right on the nose IQ, of course we can't. I'm just hopeful that he can do it on his own, because if he doesn't seem like he's able to, then I have to just forcefully yank the two apart. Which, I need to talk to you two about."

"Why is that?" Ford questioned with an annoyed tone.

The demon sighed and his personality dropped a little. "I've made deals with both of you, my end being that no harm would come to any Pines, or anyone really, while dealing with this other demon. Tearing them apart is going to hurt Dipper. Nothing permanent, but… it won't be pleasant. I was going to just do it before if Dipper couldn't fight him back, and just not say anything to you, but now that I have more of a chance to tell you my plan, I thought I'd give you a heads up."

The room fell silent for a moment, only to be broken by Ford's sigh.

"If it's our only option. Why didn't you tell us the full plan before, again?"

"I needed Star's reaction to be real. Still didn't work though. Guess I'm not as good at guessing as I used to be!" His smile returned and he looked up in thought, his hand going to his chin, fingers tapping it lightly. "With Star's new bit of info though, plan B is starting to reshape itself. Give me some time to mull it over, and this time I'll share the deets when it's done."

Mabel nodded and cut Ford off from making any more comments. Bill would need his time to think, and he didn't need Ford pestering him. "You go in your room and hammer it all out. We'll be in here." She gave a soft smile, hoping to reassure Bill. Even though he was putting on a tough face for Ford and Clyde, she knew he was just as worried as she was.

"Thanks Star. BRB, TTYL," he said jokingly before prancing away.

"Dork!" She called after him.

Clyde stood up and smacked his hands together in a loud clap. "Well, I refuse to sit in here with you two while he's gone. I too am going to my room. Have fun doing whatever it is humans do when left alone."

"We will!" Mabel beemed.

With both demons gone, Ford turned to Mabel and gave her a concerned look. "You seem to trust that Bill will make this work. Mabel, if he failed once, he may fail again. If he does, then we need to take our own measures to help Dipper. We don't know if Bill is really even trying to help him, he could be planning something else."

She waved him off and rolled her eyes. "I know Bill's done bad junk, but grunkle Ford, he's really changed. I noticed he won't show it around you, but he's not all crazy, chaos and burning things. Those are still there, sure, but I think he actually cares. I'm okay with you finding your own means of helping, but I'm going to trust Bill with this."

After a long stare down, both openly expressing their worry and confidence on their faces, Ford finally gave in.

"Alright Mabel. I trust your gut. I will be doing my own research though, just in case. I'd like to try and find a way to separate Dipper from the demon without any pain. I need to go to the house to grab some of my books though. Are you alright staying here, or do you want to come with?" He stood and popped a few joints as he stretched out.

Mabel's eyes followed his hands as he popped each of his twelve fingers. "I'll stay. Keep them demons in line," she said in a mock western accent.

"Okay. See you later than sweetheart. Remember, I am but a phone call away if Bill or his friend tries anything." He ruffled her hair then stepped away, giving a small smile and wave as he closed the door behind himself.

Mabel took a deep breath and kicked her feet out while she inhaled sharply. While everyone else was making their plans, she was going to make one of her own. After all, you can never be too careful when dealing with demons being inside of your brother.

Wait. That sounded dirty.

She giggled and shook her head as she fell back onto the couch. "We're gonna save you soon Dipdop. Be strong."

 _ **AN:**_ _ **Womp no one is realizing that too many plans is never good :p**_

 _ **I'm so happy to be back from hiatus :D As you can see, this story only has a few chapters left, and I can now finish it up by posting the last few ones once a week.**_

 _ **This story is dear to me because it was my first, but I'm not happy with where it went and all that. TBH it's a mess, loose bits everywhere and what not, but still, I couldn't bring myself to let it go without an end. So, these last few chapters are my attempt to put it to rest and give it an ending that delivers. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!**_


	21. Chapter 21

_**AN: WHOA SO THIS FIC WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE BY NOW WHOOPS**_ _**I'm super sorry for the lack of finishing up this story. Life gets in the way and my brain tends to focus on one million things at once, so it ignores some things DX**_ _**ANYWAY. Enjoy :3**_ __

Dipper felt like he was about to explode. All he could see was an obnoxious orange color, and the only thing he could hear was a horrible screeching that was coming from all around him. And though he couldn't feel his physical body, he already knew he was somehow in pain, and was becoming concerned about how Balthazar was treating it.

He had found out rather quickly that he had simply been possessed, and the nightmare thing the demon was pulling only lasted for what Dipper believed was a day or two. Time really wasn't something he was sure about while in the weird limbo.

Which concerned him even more. Did Balthazar know that he needed to eat, sleep, or _breathe?_ Well, he hadn't died yet, so obviously he at least knew about breathing.

A loud crashing sound shattered the orange walls around him and the screeching stopped, only to have a loud growl replace it.

"How dare you try to resist me!" Balthazar snarled as he appeared in front of Dipper. The demon had changed from his fake Bill appearance into a humanoid figure with two sets of arms that were both held out at his sides, fists balled in anger like a child throwing a fit. His skin was a dark orange, nearly turning red in anger as he stomped closer to Dipper.

As his surroundings melted and black walls formed, Dipper's mind forcefully snapped to what had happened however long ago, when he had fought Bill.

 _Mabel._

At first when he saw Bill slash her open, he felt more rage than he thought he was even able to, but after a moment of screaming and fighting as hard as he could, he realized something didn't feel right. Something in him just _knew_ that Mabel wasn't actually hurt.

Though that was a good thing, -a fantastic thing- it unfortunately made him stop pulling in magic, and he didn't have the drive to fight Balthazar as hard. And the demon pushed back _hard_ the second Dipper let up.

"No matter," Balthazar continued, though Dipper hadn't been listening to what he had said before. "I can use you. I need to gather more humans than just the pathetic minds of those school children. Your body is a magnificent conduit for my magic, I should have no problem creating a barrier around a large town."

"I won't let you hurt or terrorize people!" Dipper tried to do something, _anything,_ to make the demon flinch, but he found that he was barely even able to move.

The demon scoffed and flicked a wrist at Dipper, sending him into one of the black walls. "There will be no more of your outbursts." He put his lower hands on his hips and his higher ones in his black hair, ruffling the mess of curls until it turned straight and blond. His body began to morph shape and color as well, and soon he looked like Bill but with the extra set of arms still on his ribs.

Dipper sneered at him and tried to move off of the wall. "Don't go making yourself look like him! That's only going to make me more upset." And that was true. Dipper was still having mixed emotions about what he had seen and heard from Bill. Was he really putting on a show like Dipper thought he was, or was he really trying to turn on everyone? His gut told him it was the latter, but his mind worried that it was the former.

"Oh?" He purred as he stepped closer. "You didn't seem to mind it at first. When I was kissing you. I thought you _liked_ Bill," he teased.

"Who I do and do not like is none of your business." He squirmed a bit as one of the demon's hand raked through his hair.

"Please, I am inside of your head. I can see how much you enjoy Cipher's bouts of affection. It's sad, really, seeing as he doesn't really mean them."

Dipper yanked his head away so that the demon's hand was no longer on him. "I-I've already accepted that he might not feel the same. I'll get over it," he said sternly.

The demon didn't look very convinced. His hands fell back to his sides and he shrugged, an odd gesture on a being with four arms. "We'll see how well you take it when he truly does desert you. If the fool somehow manages to defeat me, he'll just go back to how he was before. What makes you think that he would even stay for you? Honestly it'd be best to just help me beat him into a pulp."

Though Dipper did kind of want to punch Bill for hurting Mabel, even if it had just been a show, he shook his head and glared daggers at the fake Bill. "I wouldn't ever help you. So what if I do care about Bill? That doesn't change the fact that I still want to stop you." He spat at Balthazar and tried to kick off the wall to swipe at him. Still no luck with that.

He laughed and nonchalantly wiped the spit from his face. "You humans and secreting your liquids. It's disgusting, really."

Dipper shifted a little uncomfortably and chewed on his bottom lip. "Which reminds me… You _have_ been taking care of my body, right? Like it's not dehydrated, starving, gross, or anything like that? How long has it even been anyway?"

"Only two days. And of course I've at least done the bare minimum. I need this body, I can't have it dying on me." He turned around and hummed for a moment, his form changing back to it's vibrant orange color. "I think I know what my next move is going to be. I hope the few marks that you have will keep your body from wearing out, because I'm about to have some fun. We need to do something about your attitude as well."

It was Mabel's turn to pace back and forth in Bill's living room. Bill had been doing it for a while before her, and when he went to his room without a word, she took his place and used her alone time to think.

Dipper was still conscious enough to fight back, so it was possible that she would be able to get through to him. Hopefully, if whatever Bill had planned failed again, she could use that.

"You're chewing on your hair. Is that something humans do? If so I refuse to do it just to fit in."

Mabel perked up and looked at where the voice had come from, seeing that Clyde had plopped down on the couch at some point. His eyes were wide and he was watching her intently. It reminded her of a kitten about to pounce on something.

She spat out her hair and shook her head. "It's just me. Well, I'm sure _other_ people do it too, but I know I do it when I'm nervous."

He shifted to lean back and took a second to get comfortable before speaking again. "Why would you be nervous? From what I know, you Pines don't back down. It's funny, really, how badly you beat Cipher. Upsetting that _you_ can't destroy him for good, but still. It must be terrible though, not to be able to change back to that form he was so fond of."

"Can't change back? I saw him go all demon-y in the Mindscape, why can't he just change back to his triangle form?" She sat down next to him, surprised to see that he inched away a bit.

"Well you essentially 'locked' that form, seeing as you basically scattered him into a million tiny pieces. That changes a demon too much for them to ever go back to how they were before." He leaned away from Mabel but reached out to touch her red sweater. "I would like another one of these. You gave me one and I sleep in it. I want one for the day time."

Choosing not to respond, Mabel just sat in thought over what Clyde had said. Couldn't change back? Bill really did seem to love that triangle thing he had going. He must miss his hat and bow tie…

"Hello?" Clyde sang. "You're almost as bad as your brother. One time I tried talking to him at school and I don't think he heard a single word I said."

Mabel snorted. " _No one_ is as bad as Dipper is at spacing out. I do it sometimes, but I can at least tell when people are talking to me."

He gave an eye roll and fell onto his back, sprawled out on the couch in an uncomfortable looking position. "Sure, sure." He yawned and loudly smacked his lips a few times. "But anyway, why are you even nervous? Cipher will eventually come up with something that works to save Pine Tree."

She shrugged and let her arms go limp in her lap. "I don't know, I just am. I know we'll figure it out, we always do, but I still worry about him."

Clyde scoffed and craned his neck to look at her from his odd position. "You humans and your feelings. You let them affect you too often."

Mabel would have sat and gave him the "feelings" lecture, but had become too lost in thought again to give him even a small node.

It was important to think through all the things that might go wrong, and Mabel wasn't about to go into that again without being _fully_ prepared. Because that time, they were coming out with Dipper. She would make sure of it.

The new plan was fool-proof. Replicate Weirdmaggedon in Dipper's Mindscape, get him to freak out the panic way, rather than the anger way, then when Balthazar was weak, rip them apart. And if ol' Baltzy was still in a solid enough piece, well, Bill would take a little extra time to scatter the rest of his energy in such a way that left the other demon in pain for a while.

Star and Sixer went off and made their own plans, only to have them all converge and make a decent plan A, a plan B, and a more desperate plan C. Hopefully they wouldn't have to resort to having Ford actually try to ritualistically pull Baltzy from Dipper, but the small amount of damage it could cause would be worth it, if i can down to it.

He groaned and shut his eyes again. That was the third time had lost focus, and he needed to find his Pine Tree again.

 _His_ Pine Tree? Huh, he hadn't even noticed when he had started to put claim on the kid like that. It was fine with him, but it was just a strange feeling to want him there that badly. The cuddling, the teasing, the kisses…

Bill felt a mental tug and a smile tugged at his lips. He just had to follow the memories and the link that they had made between their personal Mindscapes. It was easier when he was thinking purely about Pine Tree, rather than the moment in general.

The school dance, when his body compelled him to pull the kid into a kiss, all he could really focus on was how red the kid got, and how much his cheeks puffed up in anger when he let go of him. It was adorable.

Then there was one of the times they were cuddling, and he had to shut the kid up and put him to sleep. Again, a kiss seemed to be what his body thought was the best option, so he planted one on the kid. That time he just turned pink and made a cute noise, which Bill was determined to make him do again.

Another pull on his mind made Bill's eyes shoot open and he smiled.

"Got you. I'm coming, Pine Tree."

Everyone was in place. They were all already antsy since they had to wait until Balthazar let Dipper's body sleep again, and Bill was worried they would get trigger happy.

All they had to do was act out the beginning of Bill's brief take over, and get Dipper to see it. No brainer.

Clyde shifted into a form that was more like a creature Bill would have created, IQ agreed to be fake frozen into gold again, and Star agreed to sit in a fake prison bubble. Only that one she would be able to pop with just her finger, should she need to get out and help fight.

Balthazar was well aware that at least Bill was in Dipper's head again, and he was seeking him out to fight, which was what they were hoping for.

Bill began his little act as soon as Dipper's form, trying his best to ignore the orange ooze slowly seeping from his eyes and ears.

"That the best you got, Sixer? And here I thought you would put up a fight!" The words came all too naturally to Bill, and he rattled them off perfectly. He sounded like his old self.

"I know your weakness Bill! You're not invincible!" Ford, on the other hand, didn't sound as convincing. Sure he sounded angry, but it could use more… desperation. It was alright, though. Enough to set the kid off.

"Oh, but I am! You lost all your stupid, little trinkets and books! Nothing else can help you!"

The two went off in their tangents, arguing back and forth while Bill kept an eye on Balthazar, who was frozen in place, watching the scene.

The final touch to it all, was for Bill to make a loud sound, one that would surely jump start the kids anxiety.

With the snap of his fingers, a horrible loud boom sounded all around them, and Bill made it look like Sixer had been reverted back to his golden statue form.

After a moment, it clicked in Bill's head that it probably wasn't working. What had he _done_ in there to make Pine Tree not fight back? Hell, from what it looked like, Dipper wasn't reacting to it _at all._

"You think I don't have him bound and gagged after that last incident?" Balthazar laughed. "It was a _pain,_ but anything snaps if you press down on it hard enough."

The fake landscape melted away, and everything feel silent.

Everyone stared intently at Dipper's possessed form while he looked at his nails, as if he were uninterested in the situation.

"What did you do to him?" Star growled as she gracefully landed next to Bill from her popped bubble.

"Obviously nothing to kill him, but he isn't exactly very present at the moment. He's buried pretty far in here," he said as he tapped his head. "No use trying to pull him out. Might make him a vegetable, actually." His gaze met Bill's and he smiled widely. Too widely for Dipper's cute face. "I know you Cipher, you're predictable. If you want this kid back, you're going to have to use something other than brute force from one of your temper tantrums."

Bill balled his hands into fists and resisted the urge to lash out, since it would only prove his point. He did tend to throw fits.

"Do you need one of us to distract him while you change and go all demon on him? I know he said that you can't do the pulling apart thing, but like, maybe you can weaken him until Ford does his banishing thing he brought as back up?" Star did her best to whisper as discretely to Bill as possible, but it was obvious that she was talking to him.

"That's what we're going to have to do." Bill made a quick motion to the others, letting them know that plan C needed to be set into motion. It wasn't what he wanted, but he knew it was needed.

Star and Clyde both bolted at Balthazar, running him off just far enough away to keep him in a small fight while Bill pooled his magic and Ford readied the banishing ritual.

"I know that thing is short, but it's complex, and you studied it all of two days," Bill fussed as he closed his eyes to focus.

"Just do your part and I'll do mine, Cipher. _I_ won't let Dipper go this time," he snapped.

Bill just scoffed and left it alone. He needed to focus.

As Sixer set up, Bill could hear the other beginning to struggle with keeping Balthazar at bay. Something had disrupted the power balance, and Bill knew he had to hurry to help them.

Luckily, before Star or Clyde got injured, and just before IQ finished setting himself up, Bill was able to switch into the form in which his magic flowed more freely.

Just as he and Stan readied to attack, the world around them shifted again, turning into a what looked like a large cardboard box. People began popping up around them one by one, and eventually the large room was packed with faces that Bill recognized as citizens of the city they were currently in.

"What did you do!" Bill shouted as he brought himself above all of the confused mass of humans.

"This body is a wonderful conduit for magic! I was able to set up a fantastically large bubble to trap all of these minds in here!" He raised his hands above his head and brought them down quickly. A shower of spiders and snakes fell from above everyone, and mess panic promptly ensued. "Why do you think it took so long for this body to fall asleep? I've been nice and busy!"

Bill lunged forward at him, snarling. "You're going to kill him! Whether he's good at magic or not, he only has so many marks stopping it from wearing his body out!"

Balthazar moved out of the way casually and laughed. "It'll be fine! I worked this out perfectly! Face it Cipher, I outwitted you! You let your feelings for this meatsack fog your head, and now you've lost! I've thought of everything!"

The others had long been lost in the panicking people, Bill sure that Ford's set up had been ruined. It would be next to impossible to clear a space for it again, and Bill knew his own magic was running too low to change much anyway.

"No! I can still pull you out without hurting him!" Out of anger he swiped at him again, barely catching the front of his shirt.

"Careful! You wouldn't wanna rip him apart! Do that and he really will be lost for ever!"

Bill snarled at him and forced a pool of magic to his hands, his blue fire bursting out around him. "We may not have thought of everything, but don't think I won't still win! I'm getting my Pine Tree back!"

The two fought for what Bill was sure to have been almost an hour. Balthazar was gaining energy from the hundreds of nightmares going on beneath them, and Bill was tiring out.

He wasn't sure where the others were, and he realized that everything he threw at Balthazar seemed to be too predictable. He needed a new idea, and fast, or he really was going to lose Dipper.

"He's not even fighting back anymore! And it looks like you're about to give up too! I win Cipher!" Balthazar laughed maniacally, his awful smile twisting Dipper's face.

The screaming, the loss of control, the lack of power- it was driving Bill crazy. He just wanted to be at home, lying in bed with Dipper, giving into the warm and fuzzies his human body felt whenever they were with each other. He wondered if Dipper was feeling the same way. There was no way he was happy buried in his own head.

An idea struck Bill and he figured, fuck it. He didn't have any other ideas, might as well try it.

With the last bit of his magic, Bill made his bright, blue flames surround the two of them and he gently reached forward, grabbing Dipper's face.

"What are you doing!?" Balthazar squirmed a bit, but Bill kept hold of him as he pulled Dipper's face to his and kissed him as softly as he was able to.

Everything seemed to freeze and Bill hummed at the familiarness of the lips on his. Even if they weren't in the physical realm, and even if Dipper wasn't fully there, he was going to enjoy it. And he figured, if Pine Tree wasn't responding to the bad, maybe he'd respond to the good.

That is, if the kid thought the kisses were good, which he was almost certain then that he did.

Bill felt the disturbance in Balthazar's magic and took the time to dig his claws as deep as he could into Dipper to pull the other demon out. If the kiss had brought Dipper out enough, then ripping them apart wouldn't hurt him.

The ripping sound began to drown out the screams and he could feel the mental tug from Dipper and pulled harder, willing the kid to push himself away from Balthazar.

As the orange mess ripped from Pine Tree, Bill loosened his grip and tested to see if he actually was fighting the other demon. He was happy to feel that Dipper was in fact forcing the demon out, but knew he couldn't keep up his half of the puling for long. His magic was draining fast, and he only had a small amount left.

"Pine Tree, if you can hear me, you have to push harder!" Bill shouted over the sound of his fire that was still somehow swirling around them wildly. "C'mon, kid! Fight!"

Dipper groaned and Bill felt the two separate completely. With his last bit of strength, Bill used both hands to tear the blob of orange in two, his claws shredding it as much as he could before he was suddenly falling, Pine Tree already out cold in his arms.

They hit the ground soundlessly, and Bill realized that everything had gone quiet. The people were gone, the spiders and snakes had cleared away, and for a moment Bill thought he and Dipper were the only ones left in his Mindscape.

"Oh my god! Are you guys okay? Is Dipper, Dipper?" Mabel came bounding over to them, pulling Bill up so that she could see Dipper.

"He's in a bit of a state of shock right now. Balthazar is gone, but he's going to need me to go get his body as soon as possible. I have no idea where it is, and he may need help reconnecting himself." Bill gritted his teeth as he sat up, making sure the dream version of Dipper was cradled safely. "Which makes us a little shit outa luck, because I have no magic right now."

"I have enough for you to go get him," Clyde chimed. "You can use it if it means getting me done with all of this."

Bill glared at him. "Where the Hell were you? All of you."

"After the chaos broke out I went to find Mabel, seeing as it's my job to protect her. She was nearly being trampled by some people." Ford crossed his arms and looked expectantly at Clyde. "Where were you?"

"...I don't like spiders, alright? I freaked out."

Mabel broke out in a fit of laughter. "You, a big, bad demon, scared of spiders? And I'm sorry Bill, I kind of lost my cool about it too."

Clyde threw his hands up and scoffed. " _Excuse_ me! Do you not notice how… _creepy_ they are!? I wanted no part of that." He crossed his arms in a huff.

"Oh gosh," Mabel giggled. "Well, thanks for helping us with what you _did_ do. Whatever that was."

"I did stuff! You even gave me a sweater to prove it. I want another one, still."

"You're going to have to stay a while after this then, I can't just make them overnight. Okay, well, yes I can, but…"

Their bickering over the sweaters faded out to Bill as Ford kneeled down to look Dipper over.

"You can fix this?" He asked as he ran his six-fingered hand over Dipper's birthmark. "He's not going to be like this forever?"

Bill shrugged. "I can try. The sooner I find him, the better. So we need to get going."

He and Ford shared a stare for a moment, silently telling each other that they understood. There was no more need to worry about Bill, and Ford could let it go. They both just wanted Dipper to be safe.

"Find my nephew and bring him home, Cipher." He held out his hand and waited for Bill to take it.

"Can do, Sixer," he said as he grabbed it and shook. "You've been a good sport in my game."

Ford chuckled. "I've only done what I can. Hurt my family and I'll break the game in half."

Both laughed for a moment, grabbing the attention of Mabel and Clyde.

"So, let's do this magic transfer thing, then have you go find Dippin' Dots!" Mabel put both hands on her hips and smiled widely. "Team Save DipDop won't rest until he is home safe, surrounded by his nerd books!"

"On the nose, Star! No stopping 'till this kid's kickin'!" Bill gently placed Dipper down and stood up, trying his best to ignore how much his whole being ached. "You've all been great! But let's close this curtain!"

Striking a lame pose with Mabel, Bill smiled and couldn't help but notice the warm feeling in his chest. He had his Pine Tree, he had Star, Clyde wasn't completely intolerable, and Sixer pretty much gave him the go ahead to stay.

Everything was looking good, and it was time to go give Dipper that physical kiss he had been missing so badly. And time to ask him how he felt, which, from the way he had kissed back, Bill was sure he would be hearing exactly what he wanted to.

 ___**AN: Next chapter wraps everything up for this fic :3 And because I'm so horrible at schedules, I'll only make you wait a few days rather than a whole week for it :) Thanks for reading, comments and kudos always appreciated. See you at the end :3 3**_


	22. Chapter 22

_**AN: Welp, here it is. The last chapter of PWS. This is the short wrap up of the story.**_ _**I hope you all enjoy. :)**_

The sound of birds singing woke Dipper, and he groaned as he opened his eyes. His body felt like there were thousands of little feathers wiggling against his skin, making him itch horribly.

He sat up and found that the demon had dumped him on a bridge somewhere. It was made of wood and painted a soft gray, the paint chipped here and there but otherwise fairly new. The color blended well with the world around him, as everything had a gray tint to it from the small amount of sunlight peeking up over the mountains. Balthazar had clearly teleported Dipper somewhere kind of far, because the scene looked like some sort of hiking trail up north.

It was pretty at least. Everything was lively and even with the lack of color from the sun, Dipper could tell that all of the plants were a vibrant green, some sporting spots of colorful flowers. The small river that was flowing beneath him was calm and was only about a foot deep, the crystal clear water letting him see the small fish in it occasionally swim by.

He took a deep breath of the chilly air and found it to be pretty humid, but figured it was because of the water just below him.

It would be okay with him if everyone took their time to get to him. It place was definitely not the worst that Balthazar could have left him.

Sleep and food would've been nice though, so he figured it might be good to get up and at least try to find out where he was. There was a possibility that there was somewhere close by that had someone or something that could help him.

The only problem was when Dipper tried to stand up, he would flop right back down. His limbs felt like jello and refused to do more than just sit. Once he gave up on trying to move, Dipper just let his legs dangle off the edge of the bridge, leaning onto the railing that was at about chest height.

"Tired?"

His head whipped to the side, where Bill was suddenly sitting next to him.

Dipper felt too many emotions all at once at the sight of the demon, so he chose to just laugh.

"I'll take that as a yes." Bill scooted a little closer to him and cleared his throat. "I wasn't expecting you to be up and moving, honestly. I'm glad to see you're okay."

"Well, really I can't stand up, so _that's_ not very good, but I do feel all right other than that." He gave a smile and kicked his legs, nervous about what he wanted to say next.

Would Bill actually want to stay? Balthazar had hammered it into his head pretty hard that Bill would leave him once everything was taken care of. But if that were true, then why was Bill sitting so close to him? Why would Bill even come to rescue him? And why would he have kissed him like that in the Mindscape?

Dipper had to just suck it up and ask.

"I want to stay," Bill said suddenly. He looked over at Dipper and he could see the worry in the blond's eyes. "Here. W-with you." He cleared his throat and laughed a little. "You make me nervous. You make me warm. You're quick witted, adorable, and I hate you for it. Which is exactly why I need to stay here. Pine Tree, this body wants you to be constantly in its arms. _I_ want you there, too."

He stared at Bill for a moment, dumbfounded. "Yo-you really feel that way?"

Bill laughed again, that time with a hint of sadness. "I do. It's so bad that I made a deal with your sister to try and _flirt_ with you! Can you believe that? She's been helpful, though. Not a waste of a deal." His eyes widened and he smiled sheepishly. "I know you said no deals, but-"

Dipper laughed loudly, cutting Bill off. The other stared at him oddly for a moment, waiting for Dipper to calm down.

"Jeez, and here I thought I was the only idiot. I made a deal with Clyde to try and flirt with _you,_ Bill. He wasn't very helpful, though. I've been stiffed, and I'm not surprised."

"I bet he wanted to make me jealous in return, right?" Bill chuckled.

Dipper nodded and laughed again. "That's pretty much it." He wiped his eyes clear of the tears that had formed from laughing and sighed. "It's been a few days. My head is fuzzy and I'm freaking starving, but at least this place is pretty."

The two stared out into the river, just enjoying the other's company and the scenery. The sun had risen a little higher, bathing the world around them in a golden color that made Bill's hair glow like a halo.

"Have I missed anything while I was gone?" He asked quietly, as if not to disrupt the peaceful world around them.

"Not really," Bill said equally as soft, "it's only been like, three and a half days. Star is worried sick, as is Sixer, but I'm pretty sure they know I have you by now."

"Okay. Balthazar must've at least kept me hydrated then," he huffed. "I just wish he knew what food was."

Bill placed a hand on his back and rubbed it lightly. "Wanna go home then? We can be there in a second." He raised his hand looking ready to snap his fingers, but waited until Dipper answered him.

"Not quite yet. Food can wait. I don't know when anything in my life will be as peaceful as it is right now again, so I want to enjoy it a bit longer. Plus I'd like to let my head clear up some more. Details are fuzzy." He hummed contently as the rubbing continued, letting himself drape over the railing lazily.

"Okay, Pine Tree." Bill audibly gulped. "So, then, you want me to stay?"

Dipper ran the question over in his head. Of course he wanted Bill to stay. The demon was practically his boyfriend at that point, and he wasn't about to let that go.

"Yes, Bill. All those things you said that I do to you, you do to me too. I don't think I'd handle it very well if you left, honestly."

"Good." Bill's hand was suddenly on the side of his face, and soon after, Dipper was pulled into a kiss.

It was so warm, so inviting, and so _welcome._ For the first time, Dipper leaned back into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Bill's neck as they both hummed into it.

When they finally let up, Bill pressed his forehead to Dipper's and lightly rubbed his thumb over Dipper's cheek. "Let's go home soon, then."

"He said what!?" Mabel squealed excitedly as she jumped a little next to Dipper's bed.

The two had been left alone, mostly because Mabel demanded some "twin time", and Dipper had just finished telling her about sitting on the bridge with Bill.

"That's so romantic! Oh my gosh! I wish I had a picture of that!" She plopped down on the bed and crossed one leg over the other, smiling wider than Dipper thought she even could. "Bill's staying with you, Clyde's staying here to help me make sweaters- don't ask, I needed the extra labor- and you're home safe! Life's good today, Bro-Bro!"

"It really is. Did grunkle Ford say when he was leaving?"

She slapped at her knees and bounced a bit. "He's not leaving for another week, because he _kind of_ told grunkle Stan about everything, so now he's on his way down to probably try and punch Bill in the face. But that's okay! We can talk it all out!"

Dipper groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh boy, _that'll_ be fun."

"It will! Because mom and dad will be home too! They wanted to see their uncles, and dad's off for a few days, so the house will be packed with the Pines family!"

He groaned even louder and put his hands over his face. "Kill me now," he chuckled.

Mabel booped his knee and giggled. "Nope! I will suggest that you get some sleep though, bro. You have bags under your eyes again. Heck, your _bags_ have bags. Do you want me to send Bill in?"

"Please. And thank you Mabel. I don't know what you all did to save me, but I know you stopped at nothing to help me. Awkward sibling hug?"

She threw her arms around him, effectively crushing him a bit. "Sibling hug!" When she moved away, she nearly jumped off the bed and ran to the door, all while quickly saying, "I may have not helped in the end because there was a spider in my hair that was really big and gross and I'm leaving before you process this, so bye!"

The door slammed shut behind her, and Dipper just smiled at it. Spiders _a_ _re_ pretty gross.

Not too long after, Bill came in and immediately took off his shirt and crawled into bed with Dipper.

"Was your shower and breakfast good?" Bill pulled Dipper into a tight cuddle, one hand on his waist and the other in his hair, running his fingers through his alight curls.

"Mm, yeah. Very refreshing," Dipper murmured.

Bill kissed his forehead and took a deep breath. "Good. Ready to sleep? I can give you any dream you want. We can fly, we can go to Paris, or we could snoop around other people's heads and freak them out-"

"No," Dipper laughed. "No freaking people out. Can uh, can you make a dream about the bridge?"

"Doubting my abilities," he scoffed playfully. "Of course I can."

"Then that's what I want." He paused for a moment and whined a little. "My family is all going to be here over the next week."

Bill fixed a lock of Dipper's hair that had fallen over his face. "So?"

"So, you're going to be meeting my family. Stan is going to be here. Chances are he's not going to be happy with you. I don't even know how you got Ford to be okay with you, but Stan might not be as easy to sway."

"Oh hush, Pine Tree. We'll figure it out when it comes. Stop stressing about the future. Think about right now. Think about me," he purred.

Dipper laughed and pushed at the blond a little without actually trying to push him away. "I am, you creep. Hard not to think about someone who's right up against you. Anyway, you think you're ready to meet my family? Will you behave?"

Bill looked mildly offended and rolled his eyes. "Of course I will. And seriously, it'll be fine. Stop worrying. You need sleep now, okay? Let's go back to the bridge."

"Yeah, okay," Dipper nodded. "You're right. It'll come when it comes. Let's go to the bridge." Really any dream would be good, so long as they were both in it, but Dipper had liked the scene.

The two got more comfortable and made sure the comforter was about up to their shoulders. It nearly covered Dipper's face while Bill only had it up to his neck. The arrangement was warm though, so Dipper didn't complain. He could lay like that forever.

"Sleep well, Dipper. See you on the bridge."

"See you on the bridge."

And just like that Dipper was asleep comfortably in Bill's arms, ready to face whatever might come next.

 _ **AN:**_ ** _Thank you, everyone who stuck this out with me. Though this fic is far from my best, it was my first. It helped me grow as a writer, and was my stepping stone to where I am now. There's a lot of loose ends to this, and honestly it's a bit of a mess, but I love it wholly. There were so many, TOO many, directions I wanted to take this, so that's why some things that were mentioned or brought up didn't really come back. I just needed to wrap this up._**

 ** _I may re-write it someday to clean it up and make it make more sense, but for now this is it, friends._**

 ** _Thanks to Triangulumhotdangulum (on AO3) for the pictures of Clyde being obsessed with, and trying to date, his sweater. I'd share a link but they were just shared over Instagram messaging :p They gave me a good laugh and I love them 3_**

 ** _Thank you for reading, I really appreciate the positive comments and encouragement. It means the world to me, and I love you all 3_**

 _ **Also, I will not be posting on this site anymore. See my profile for more details, but if you want to read anything else by me, I now post on AO3 (Archive of Our Own) under this same username.**_

 _ **Thanks, have a great day! :3 3**_


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